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Leaving Salem

Jesus said the worship demanded by God is worship that is “in spirit and in truth.” Now there is a phrase worth taking some time with: Spirit and truth. True worship, as defined by Jesus is a connection of the inner person with God of the universe. It is a deeply spiritual phenomenon. True worship…

Earlier this year my family and I rolled into the wild-west town ofFlagstaff,Arizona. It was an epic journey, one we had planned on for more than a year, and one I had anticipated since my first son was born more than ten years ago. Having traveled through a great deal of the American West, I…

The late devotional writer and Catholic priest Henri Nouwen compared the leap of faith we must make to follow Christ to the courage of a trapeze artist. This was something Nouwen knew about first hand. Nouwen traveled with the “Flying Rodleighs” for a time, drawing more than one spiritual lesson from the lives they lived.…

His name was Jacob, and he lived up to his name. “Jacob” means “heel grabber,” or “one who causes others to stumble.” Not very flattering. Today we might use words like trickster, swindler, shyster, or con-artist. Jacob was the kind of guy who always found a way, through an abundance of guts or a lack…

Karl Barth was likely the greatest theologian of the twentieth century. He is best known as a prolific writer. His Church Dogmatics took more than thirty years to complete and is more than six million words long. Late is his career Barth made a visit to the United Statesand lectured at the University of Chicago.…

Curtain climbers. Yard monkeys. Ankle biters. I don’t know what you call them, but our children have been turned loose on the world. School is out for summer! By the end of summer I’m afraid my description of these little animals will be a bit stronger. I’ll be ready for them to return to the…

Before there was a Memorial Day, there was Decoration Day. Developed in the Post-Civil War decades, Decoration Day was exactly that: A day to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers. Over time, and with the sacrifice of so many young men and women in two World Wars, the name was changed, and Memorial Day became…

When I met him in the fall of 2005, Joshua Burton was seventy-five years old. On a walker, slowed by age, his caramel skin calloused by years of hard work, he still had the light of life in his eyes. His “girlfriend,” Susie Ward was even more energetic. Having surpassed three score and ten years…

Years ago my sister traveled toEastern Europe,Russia, and theUkraineon a mission trip. She worked among the indigenous Christians on a number of worthy projects. And when her time ran up, she returned home with a heart full of joy, a head full of memories, and bags full of strange and wonderful souvenirs. Since I’m the…

My grandmother lived her entire life on a farm. First, it was cotton, then it was soybean, and finally it was cows and chickens. I spent every summer of my childhood and teen years on that farm, working in my uncle’s chicken houses, chasing stray cows, bailing and stacking hay. I learned the very first…
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