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Returning from Exile

Isaiah 51:11 reads: Those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. I have often wondered what those ancient Israelites felt...

And If He Sees His Shadow…

“This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather.” – Bill Murray, Groundhog Day This Tuesday is Groundhog Day, a North American tradition observed in the US and Canada on February 2. Its origins...

Twenty Years… and Counting!

Twenty years ago this past week, I began my ministry with the Conejo Valley Church of Christ. It was a week before the inauguration of President George W. Bush and nine months before the calamitous events of 9/11. Our daughters were 7, 4 and 2 years old and I was what...

A Quiet Word

[Editor’s note: today’s timely meditation by Landon Saunders invites us to reflect on our humanity in light of Micah 6:8.] I woke up this morning thinking about the question that has guided my life and work most: What does it mean to be a human being? It’s Tuesday...

Gratitude as a Way of Seeing

This week’s article was written before the events of Wednesday, January 6. While we realize that feelings of shock, sadness, and unrest are more prevalent now than the sentiments expressed in this poem, we do feel that this will be a good reminder for us to...

A Grateful Resolution

Happy new year! First of all, I have no significant predictions to offer for the next twelve months; 2020 cured me of that! Second, I invite you to consider a disposition you can cultivate that I (ahem!) predict could make a big difference for your life this coming...

Planning in Pencil

“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.” Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then...

And Then There Was Joy

It is hard to believe that we are in the third week of Advent – just two weeks away from Christmas!  This year, 2020, has dragged on with difficulty, yet it also seems to have flown by! Before you know it we will be ringing in the new year 2021. Doubtless we all...

Blessed are the Cheesemakers

Blessed are the cheesemakers. When I was in college, my friends and I found the British comedy troupe Monty Python to be pretty close to the height of comedy. Their movie, The Life of Brian, is one that I cannot really recommend. It skirts the edge of blasphemy and at...

Anniversaries to Remember

“So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.” Galatians 6:9-10 The year 2020 has...