Tag: redemption

Pastor Note #56 — On Marriage and Redemption

~ gachorpenning ~ 1 Comment

        I’ve been married now for almost twenty-nine years.  So has my wife.  We got married at the same time.  I think I can say without much hesitation that my wife and I have a good marriage.  It has been a tremendous blessing to my life.  Nothing in my life has quite equaled it, except … Continue reading Pastor Note #56 — On Marriage and Redemption

Pastor Note #52 — Ministry Q. & A. — 3/18/2013

~ gachorpenning ~ 2 Comments

As with most organizations, the church tends to follow the 80/20 rule.  How should a pastor encourage others to get involved in church activities?  Accept leadership positions?  Participate in Sunday Worship?  Is this even a pastor’s responsibility? Bluntly put, there is nothing that a pastor, as a human being, can do to accomplish what is … Continue reading Pastor Note #52 — Ministry Q. & A. — 3/18/2013

Prayer Note #44 — Longings

~ gachorpenning ~ 2 Comments

    Lord Jesus, you are King and Lord.  There is life nowhere except in you.  Apart from you is the abyss, the nightmare, the acid fog that corrodes my flesh and my spirit and my life itself. In you, Good Savior, is freshness.  In you is soothing sunshine and richness and life overflowing.  In … Continue reading Prayer Note #44 — Longings

Prayer Note #41 — An Advent Devotional Prayer — Isaiah 47:1, 3b-15

~ gachorpenning ~ 2 Comments

  The Death of Evil, the Birth of Hope   Isaiah 47:1, 3b-15               O Lord, your anger frightens us.  When we read such passages of scripture as this one, we are made uneasy.  We move on quickly to happier lines and brighter verses.  Through your prophet Isaiah here … Continue reading Prayer Note #41 — An Advent Devotional Prayer — Isaiah 47:1, 3b-15

Pastor Note #47 — Living in Time, Living with God, Part 3: Disciplines of Christian Remembering

~ gachorpenning ~ 4 Comments

            Time can seem like an enemy to us sometimes.  Our lives flow away from us into the past.  And as they do, they seem to slip through our fingers like sand.  We can especially feel that way as we watch our children and then our grandchildren grow up and … Continue reading Pastor Note #47 — Living in Time, Living with God, Part 3: Disciplines of Christian Remembering

Prayer Note #39 — On Not Being All That I Could Be

~ gachorpenning ~ 2 Comments

Let me have ears to hear you clearly and a heart and mind to understand you deeply and a strong inclination to go as you lead me and to use what you have given me, and so to glorify your name. You have given me many gifts, many resources, many tools.  But mostly I squander … Continue reading Prayer Note #39 — On Not Being All That I Could Be

Pastor Note #44 — Coffee Mugs and Robust Coffee, Churches and the Powerful Presence of Jesus

~ gachorpenning ~ 2 Comments

There are several steady coffee mugs in my life.  In our kitchen cabinets at home, we have quite a stable of coffee mugs.  Coffee mugs seem to just accumulate over time.  Recently, we cleared some of them out because we were running out of room on the shelves.  I’m willing to drink coffee out of … Continue reading Pastor Note #44 — Coffee Mugs and Robust Coffee, Churches and the Powerful Presence of Jesus

Pastor Note #43 — Blood on the Pew (A day in March 2000)

~ gachorpenning ~ 2 Comments

It was Tuesday noontime.  I had gone into the big, dark Romanesque sanctuary of my church in downtown Columbus, Ohio for a weekly prayer meeting with a handful or so of people, mostly not members of my congregation but rather folks who worked downtown and constituted part of my weekday ancillary congregation. As I sat … Continue reading Pastor Note #43 — Blood on the Pew (A day in March 2000)

Prayer Note #37 — On a Summer Morning

~ gachorpenning ~ 2 Comments

Lord, the sun is warm and pleasant on my back.  The birds of all sorts are chirping and twittering in the trees around me this morning.  Lily, my gracious, canine companion, is lying beside me with her chin on the bottom rail looking out into the backyard, watching everything and nothing in particular, patient and … Continue reading Prayer Note #37 — On a Summer Morning

Prayer Note #36 — The Time of my Life

~ gachorpenning ~ 1 Comment

Here I am, Lord.  It's a little before 5:00 A.M., and I've been awake for a half an hour or so, lying in bed, my mind wandering from thought to thought.  I seem to be done sleeping, though the clock tells me that I shouldn't be.  Have you wakened me for some reason?  Or is … Continue reading Prayer Note #36 — The Time of my Life