Pastor’s Pen

The Fight for Joy

It seems to come so naturally for most children who have their basic needs met – a joyful enthusiastic attitude toward life.  Smiles a mile wide at the mere prospect of an ice cream cone, screams of delight at the sight of a friend coming over to “play”, a secure and confident trust that leads …

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Christian Bragging?

Most of us don’t like to be around braggarts.  Their subtle and often not so subtle references to their achievements, their status, their latest and greatest purchase, the size of their portfolio, their brilliance (and that of their extremely gifted children) can cause us to inwardly cringe, look for the closest exit, or excuse ourselves …

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How to Enlarge God?!

As we have been thinking through the first chapter of the Gospel according to Luke, a statement in Mary’s Magnificat struck me as quite puzzling when I first began to ponder it:  “My soul magnifies (literally- “enlarges”) the Lord!”  How in the world can we enlarge God – the Creator and Sustainer of all things …

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The Fear Factor

It is all around us these days.  It’s in the atmosphere we breathe.  It’s spawned in us by the media, by internet blogs, by declining house values, by declining stock values, by jobs lost, and innumerable stories of hard times, even our President seems daily to remind us of how bad things are…and, worst of …

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Investing for the Future

I’ve always been intrigued by investing…trying to develop an ideal portfolio that minimizes risk and maximizes return is fascinating to me.  There is no end to the number of financial pundits out there who, for a not-so-small fee, will manage your money promising sky high returns while assuring you that there is virtually no downside …

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The Paradox of Pain

Pain is paradoxical…it can sink us into the depths, yet simultaneously raise us to new spiritual heights; it can cause us to become self-absorbed, yet also develop in us a great compassion for others who suffer; it can cause us to cry out for any and every kind of temporal relief, yet simultaneously loosen our …

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