Category: Messages

With Liberty, Justice and Care for All

Among the Navajo people there is no word for “Goodbye” and parting words mean “Take care of your people.” A good reminder for “We, the People” to take care of all members of the US tribe.

From Youtube

Perhaps it is time among our people to amend our pledge to reflect that without care we cannot be one. Without care there is no liberty or justice. “I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty, justice and care  for all.”

Take Care of Your People,

Pastor Jim

A Little Grace for a Hard Place

This weekend an old grief returned to haunt me. My faith felt weak and limited in the presence of this old foe. So, I reached back into a sermon I preached August 19, 2012 and rediscovered the simple faith of a widow and her gift of two small copper coins and remembered a prayer that can help you when you feel you’ve run out of your resources to cope.

Prayer for Uncertain Times

Learn how to pray like the Apostle Paul when facing uncertain times. St. Paul, quarantined under house arrest, gave us a map to discover power in prayer and tap into the power of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

*The Sun Valley Motel (1952) shown in the video was owned by my grandparents and was where my father returned to Phoenix in 1947. It was there also I was taken after my birth at Good Samaritan Hospital.

Behind the scenes, my grandson, Jaden (12), operated the video camera. This was about take six as he would stop the camera as I tried to explain to let it record without stopping and I would edit it later. Some of my smiling was related to his antics.

Relief

I thought I missed something … with our new toilet paper free bidet system. No sooner had I returned daisy fresh to my bedside that I felt something hard slide down the back of my leg inside my jammies, bounce off my foot and onto the floor with a plop.

I glanced at Carol and asked her if she wanted an update. I turned on the bedside lamp and there it was! My AARP card stuck to a book cover and fell into my jammies before standing.

Never have I been “more relieved”! Never had I felt more like an AARP member. #Relieved

Discover the Place of Your Resurrection

How to follow the will of God when faced with life’s uncertainty. The Apostle Paul under house arrest in Rome discovered the will of God working through him in the midst of a difficult time. St. Brendan, the Irish Monk of the 5th and 6th century reminds us how the Celtic Christians practiced pilgrimage in seeking God’s will by floating in a rudderless, hide covered boat, a coracle, until it came to rest at “the place of their resurrection.” Where is your pilgrimage taking you in God’s will? Can you rest in God’s assurance that He will unfold his plan through you?

PRAYER OF ST. BRENDAN

“Help me to journey beyond the familiar and into the unknown.

Give me the faith to leave old ways and break fresh ground with You.

Christ of the mysteries, I trust You to be stronger than each storm within me.

I will trust in the darkness and know that my times, even now, are in Your hand.

Tune my spirit to the music of heaven,and somehow,

make my obedience count for You.”

AMEN.

from http://praoh.org/st-brendan-the-navigator/