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Prayer, Plain and Simple

New Year: 2010. There’s nothing magical about this 24 hour segment of time. It’s like any day: the earth goes round the sun in exactly the pattern it has for millennia. Yet in our culture we designate this day as our moment among 365 days to “figuratively” stop and restart. It’s customary to make formal…

How strong is your will power? Making New Year resolutions is easy. Making them work is not. We intend to change, yet our ability to persevere over the long haul usually isn’t sufficient. It’s a frustrating human reality. As Jesus put it, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”     Some recent…

Are you making a New Year Resolution? What odds would you give yourself for sustaining your goal? 80%? 50%? 20%?   Bad news: According to studies on weight loss (the most common resolution), by February almost 60 percent of us will have abandoned our resolve. By May close to 90 percent will have dropped off.…

By Mark Herringshaw   “Be it here resolved that in 2010 I will…”   It’s that time once again. December 31st, “National Extreme Makeover Day,” the 24 hour stretch when everything is possible, tomorrow. There’s nothing particularly magical about this day, yet because of our need for renewal we use it as an opportunity to…

Today is “Good Riddance Day.” At this moment in Times Square, New York, several hundred people are arriving lugging cardboard boxes of old income tax records, mortgage papers, old music recordings, and photographs, anything that brings bad memories from 2009. They’re scrawling on slips of paper last year’s failed resolutions and the doubts and fears…

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman…” Galatians 4:4 God with us,   I’ve come to see you. I’m not as clean as I wish I was, but I’m hoping you’ll receive me just as you did the rough, and sweaty shepherds who burst in on…

By Claudia Mair Burney Christmas Eve “While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child.” Luke 2:6 NRSV   Light of the world,   The people walking in darkness await you. We who are living in the land of the shadow of death have fixed our eyes to the sky for…

By Claudia Mair Burney The fourth Wednesday of Advent “The time came for Elizabeth to have her child, and she gave birth to her son; and when her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had lavished on her his faithful love, they shared her joy.” Luke 1:57-58 (NJB)   Elizabeth was once a barren…

It seems like there’s always more bad news than good. Take today. Yes, it’s Christmas and where I live, a “white Christmas” at that. But all is not cheer and good will. Just read the paper, or these days, the news link on your favorite website. Today the headlines are: Feuding politicians in Washington A…

By Claudia Mair Burney Tuesday, the fourth week of Advent “Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.” Hebrews 10:5 (NRSV) I seldom take the time to consider…
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