Wednesday, February 24, 2010
It snowed yesterday. It was not much, about an inch in our backyard; but it was enough to make a cluttered backyard beautiful. I say "cluttered" because we have two kids and two Golden Retrievers. Between the kids and the dogs, winter is hard on a backyard; makes it look like a tornado hit a yard sale. The dormant grass has ruts in it where the dogs run. There are fire logs laying in the middle of the yard, brought there from the wood pile by one of the dogs who prefers gnawing tree bark to...
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11:23 AM |
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Tuesday, February 02, 2010
The church is like a puzzle and we are the pieces. No two pieces are alike. You were made to fit in the body of Christ, but God does not force the fit. Since he made us and saved us, the spot where he places us cut just for us. It means that when God places you in the body of Christ, you belong. It will feel like home to you. If you go missing, it will be obvious. If you are not present and using your gift, the church will be like a puzzle without all the pieces -- incomplete. Our...
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2:40 PM
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
It's Tuesday, January 26, 2010. I have not written in a while...still not used to this blogging thing. I have had Haiti on my mind lately. The news reported this morning that there will now be a generation of people who are amputees in that country. There will be a great need for prosthetics and ongoing medical attention for these people in order to do the fitting and refitting that will be necessary over a lifetime. This story made me realize that we are just barely touching the tip of...
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10:08 AM |
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Monday, January 11, 2010
Why does baptism matter? Baptism as we know it has not always been done in the Bible. In fact, until John the Baptist, no one baptized another. Ritual cleansing was done to rid yourself of everyday sins and situations that could make a person unclean and unfit for worship. It was not just sin that made one unclean in the OT. A whole list of ordinary life events could make one unclean, and thus in need of a ritual cleansing before approaching God in worship. Improper diet, a woman's monthly...
Friday, December 25, 2009
Christmas Eve. It's quiet. Everyone's asleep, except me. Family curse. Insomnia, that is. Santa just finished putting out all the toys for the good girls and boys. He woke me up. Now I cannot sleep, so I am thinking about the night. You know, the first Christmas. It was not in December; we know that. It was probably not cold like Texas is right now. Kerrville is in the mid twenties. Dallas has snow on the ground and Oklahoma City...
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Don't take this in a secular way, but Christmas is so much fun, especially with children around. I have one who "knows" about Santa Claus and one that is still in the wonder stage where being on the "Good List" is still a motivator. But recently, Mara, the four year old, was trying to figure out the whole Jesus/Santa equation. She knows Santa is not Jesus and vice versa, but she was not sure how the two went together. Many of us adults are not either, or at least we grasp for ways to...
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elankford@tbck.org at
10:44 AM
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
There's a lot of planning and training that goes into a half marathon. It all came together when I crossed the finish line Sunday. My time was not what I wanted. And it was humid and hot. Finishing was a thrill. Eating a bag of chips, guzzling a sports drink, and scarfing down a banana -- I don't remember a time when food tasted so good. The ice cold rag was a welcome relief. The medal was a nice touch too. But there's one thing that meant more than all of the race's perks and...
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3:28 PM
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
This coming Sunday I will do something I have never done...run 13.1 miles because I want to. The San Antonio Rock-n-Roll Marathon and Half Marathon starts at 7:30 AM. When I first came to Kerrville eight years ago, I was running a little. But along the way, a doctorate and a child later I was up to weighing...well, too much. I could not even read the Bible from the pulpit without holding it out far enough so I could see over my cheeks. Now that I have fallen in love with running again,...
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2:56 PM
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Many of you have commented to me during the series of sermons on Job. Job is an amazing study in life's ultimate questions. Many theologians even call Job's experience a quest for the final truth about God: why does a good God permit the innocent to suffer? We saw in this series that Job does suffer for no reason. For myself, I have been reminded that the "why" questions are not answered. And when we try to fill in the blanks to give "certainty and reason" to our suffering, our...
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10:54 AM