I had a few ideas in mind but nothing written down when I wrote The Christmas Stress Factor. One thought that missed the post completely was the financial stressor. I’m not talking about maxing the credit cards buying presents for every man and his brother (that stress usually hits in the middle of January when the bills arrive). I’m talking about all the good causes that will ask during this time of year. Continue reading
The Christmas Stress Factor
This can be a stressful time of year, and active church members are perhaps even more likely to overdo it. Each of us has so many events – office parties, parades, school events, choir practice, Sunday School parties, church dinners – in addition to shopping, wrapping, and planning time for family that it can easily be overwhelming. It may be difficult to find time but we must pause and give priority to the things that are the most important. Continue reading
Advent: Verses of Prophecy
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6
Happy Monday
Glad that’s over. Thank God for Cyber Monday, right? Continue reading
Thanksgiving Day 2014
The Master’s Table – offering God honoring, Christ centered blogging since 2008. On the one hand that’s pretty awesome. On the other hand that means annual activities, like Thanksgiving Day, have already been done. I’m not sure I have much more to say on that subject.
Here is a Thanksgiving sermon that I was looking at earlier this morning. I found it lurking in the dark shadows of the archives, all the way back from 2008. I preached a very similar sermon this year without even realizing this post existed. A key difference was the inclusion of Revelation 15:3-4 which relates the Song of Moses to the Song of the Lamb solidifying Moses as a type of Christ and connecting the Old Testament to the New.
I did write something new this year on My Other Blog. #27 on my 30 Days of Thanksgiving adventure could alternately be titled I Am Thankful for Thanksgiving. I put on my history teacher hat and outline the ways in which Thanksgiving is and is not a religious holiday. Easter and Christmas are Christian holy days, Thanksgiving is sort of the 4th of July of religious holidays. It’s as American as pumpkin pie. (wink)
Happy Monday
Thanksgiving is this week but we are going to include some other bits in this “mostly Thanksgiving” edition of Happy Monday. Continue reading
Happy Monday
Happy Monday 2X
Every week the Happy Monday folder on my laptop gets things periodically dropped into it, and every weekend we pick out the 10 images, scriptures, quotations, comics and cute animals most likely to get your Monday and therefore your week off to a good start. There is simply too much to choose from! So if McDonald’s can Super Size your order, the movie plex can show a double feature and Payless can offer BOGO, why can’t we give you twice the Happy for lllthe same price? (Which of course is free!!!) Somebody tell Phil Robertson it’s Happy Happy Monday!
Looking Forward to Reading the Bible
I have been bragging on the ESV Bible for a number of years, but my working philosophy is that to understand the message of scripture as fully as possible one needs to read a variety of translations. I grew up in churches that were “King James only.” Sometime around 2002 or 2003 I read through the Bible in the New Revised Standard Version. I was considering which version to read next – possibly even the NIV, if you can imagine such a thing – when I was introduced to the ESV. Mike Jones, the pastor at my ministry ordination, gave me a thinline ESV (after asking which translation I would prefer) and Michael Spencer later gave me an ESV Study Bible when that was released. Continue reading
Can Your Bible Walk on Water?
Okay, this Bible doesn’t literally walk. But the cover and every page is water proof.
When I was introduced to the ESV in 2003 it was pretty new to the market. There were few options and no other ESV products available. A few years later the ESV Study Bible was introduced; I have one of those really big ones from the first print run. Today you can get large print or compact Study Bible, Thinlines, New Testaments, Student Bibles, plus some rather unique editions. The waterproof ESV pictured above (available here) has a camo style cover. It also come in a pink for girls and a gender neutral style. You can submerge the entire book and the pages are impervious to damage from water.
My comment was that coffee stains would wipe right off it, and another customer on the same aisle laughed and said he was thinking the same thing!
30 Days of Thanksgiving
November is National Blog Posting Month – NaBloPoMo – when bloggers commit to posting at least once each day for 30 days. I accepted the challenge in the form of 30 Days of Thanksgiving. While I haven’t posted much on this blog lately, I am up to day #13 on My Other Blog. The most recent post is about the annual Pastor Appreciation event in Atlanta hosted by Faith Talk 970/ 104.7 The Fish. Several SBC state conventions had their annual meeting this week and I will be writing about the Georgia meeting soon.
There is a My Other Blog RSS feed in the left-hand column of this page or click here to check out the latest posts. 30 Days of Thanksgiving because God is good all the time!
The Master's Table 