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Journal Joy Notes

Joy at New Baptisms

Sunday on Father’s Day, between our two services we had the joy of baptizing Eric Moon and Jerry Mercier by immersion.   Eric’s testimony of being influenced to turn his life around and follow Christ by his father’s example, brought tears to our eyes.   Jerry’s testimony of God’s gracious intervention and answers to prayer brought assurance to all of us of God’s tender care.   Personally, being a part of Jerry’s baptism was a double blessing to me as Jerry has become one of my Wednesday morning prayer partners and a dear friend because of it.

Testifying to our faith through the tradition of believer baptism has a history going back into the New Testament itself.  Jesus instructed his disciples to use baptism as a mark as they enrolled people as his followers (Matt. 28:19).   In his Pentecost sermon, Peter encouraged people to be baptized (Acts 2:38).     Saul who is usually called Paul was baptized shortly after his conversion (Acts 9:18).  While the Wesleyan Church does not require immersion style baptism as we did last Sunday for believers, we use it whenever possible because the symbolism (as described in Romans 6) is the most complete.

What a joy to celebrate with Eric and Jerry as they obeyed Jesus direction.   Our prayers are with them as they seek to live day by day as disciples of Christ.

 

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Journal Joy Notes Who Am I

News! We are to be Grandparents!

JoAnne and I are on the proverbial cloud nine as we have recently learned that our daughter, Keely, and her husband Mark are expecting!  Early next year we are to become grandparents for the first time. What wonderful news!

The only hard part about it was that we were given the preliminary news a couple weeks earlier but were asked not to tell it for a couple weeks. This was really hard as people are always asking us whether there is any news about grandchildren yet.  It’s tough to keep good news in, especially for me.  Well now we can say, “Yes there is news!”

So if we seem to be a little distracted or have our head in the clouds, you’ll know the reason.

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Journal Joy Notes

More strawberries

The joys of lots of strawberries!

What a patch of strawberries!  It’s been so long since I filled my homemade basket tray that I forgot when the last time was. This year I’ve had the joy of repeatedly filling it – we are up to 80 quarts at this point and I’m still picking strawberries.   We’ve given away nearly half of them.  That’s what many gardeners like to do.  It helps even out the feast and famine nature of gardening.  You give away some of your bumper crop, and someone else will likely give you some of their next bumper crop.

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Journal News Commentary

An excellent argument for “Under God”

While the Syracuse Post-Standard has been trying my patience greatly of late with their rabid unbalanced advocacy of gay marriage, today I found an article on a different topic that I really liked. They included an opinion piece by Peter Johnson which is an eloquent defense of the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.  It also provides an informative history of how the phrase came to be included.   I highly recommend this article.

http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2011/06/flag_day_commentary_under_god.html

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Journal Joy Notes Who Am I

Strawberries: I’ve been waiting for this!

As a hobby gardener, sometimes it is a while between good harvests of one particular crop. That’s the way it has been with me and strawberries. For several years I nursed an old patch hoping for a good harvest; only to be repeatedly disappointed.  The old plants never seemed to put out runners like they should have. So two

Lots of strawberries, at last!

years ago I planted an entirely new patch hoping that soon I could fill my strawberry tray with fresh strawberries.  But waiting was still the name of the game.  The first long year I was advised to snip off all the blossoms and just encourage the plants to get stronger. Then last year we did harvest some strawberries, but not enough to fill my tray.  The meadow voles ate as many as I did!  But the plants continued growing and I kept weeding the patch and I added a little manure for fertilizer too.   The plants multiplied and filled in the patch completely.

A week ago Saturday, I brought a handful of ripe strawberries into the house and said to my wife, “I think we will be picking strawberries on Monday.”  Little did I guess how many. My small patch overflowed with berries; six quarts on Monday, 24 quarts on Thursday, and 21 more quarts on Saturday!  Lots of strawberry shortcake, strawberry jam, strawberries for the freezer, and hopefully a strawberry rhubarb pie too!   And lots of strawberries to give away to friends—another favorite thing gardeners like my wife and I like to do.    

Just call it a banner week for a hobby gardener—a strawberry banner that is!

 

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Journal News Commentary

A well-written and thoughtful article on religion and politics

It isn’t every day that you run into one of those.  But this definitely is one.  The distinctions it draws between separatism, fusion, and critical engagement are well thought out and wise.  If only more Christians understood the need to be critically engaged in the current debates in our country!

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/inquirer/123701709.html

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Americana Journal Joy Notes

Elizabeth Park in Hartford, Conn.

A few weeks ago we visited Keely and Mark and while we were there we took time to relax in the gardens at Elizabeth Park in West Hartford, Conn.   I have written before that I like to look for quiet spots to relax.   Well, this is a beautiful one.   It’s main feature is the extensive rose garden which was not in bloom this early in the spring.  But it also features this exquisite annual garden which is very well tended.   In the spring it is planted to tulips.  It also has goldfish ponds and grassy areas.  I have not had time to blog about it until now so here is a gallery of some shots we took.

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News Commentary

Men Who Misbehave…

Here is an excellent commentary on the sexual misbehavior of prominent men in our world and how they do not get enough negative publicity for it.   I could not agree more.   As a holiness movement pastor, I believe our culture needs to begin to honor those whose character is worth emulating.  It seems like immorality in media figures only garners them more publicity.  As long as this is the case, our chilidren will not understand how wrong and destructive their behavior is.

http://blog.sojo.net/2011/05/26/zero-tolerance-trump-schwarzenegger-and-strauss-kahn/#disqus_thread

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News Commentary

More on Camping’s failed May 21 Prediction

Harold Camping is the latest in a long line of would-be prophets who by virtue of cleverness or supposed special knowledge have thought themselves an exception to Jesus’ words in Matt. 24:36; only to be embarrassed and exposed as false prophets when the predicted day arrived.

Sadly, such predictions do not seem to have the desired effect either.  I think the preacher supposes that his date-setting will precipitate an immediate revival of religion.   But instead of causing secular people to flock to faith, it seems to give occasion for unbelievers to ridicule the whole idea of Jesus’ return.   They certainly are not led to repent and prepare for the day when Jesus will return.

But in spite of the adverse climate created by a preacher such as Camping, it is very important for believers to continue to affirm the Bible’s words regarding the central truth that Jesus will return.   Our job is to replace errant teaching that leads to confusion with clear teaching.  To that end, I am including a link to a sermon visual I wrote that gives a more orthodox exposition of Jesus’ second coming and how we should respond to that firm expectation.    As Paul put it, “We wait for the blessed hope — the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13 NIV).  We do not know the date, but we are expecting his return.

I believe one of the key lessons in Scripture from the teaching about Jesus’ second coming is this.  Since He is returning, we are ultimately accountable to him for how we live.  So as we remind ourselves of the truth of his coming and watch for it, living in expectation of it, we desire more and more to live out our faith with diligence from day to day so that we do not need to be ashamed at his coming.

 

In view of Jesus’ Second Coming

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Journal Joy Notes

CNY Wesleyan Men’s Retreat exciting and inspiring

Every year the guys who go rave about men’s retreat but I have not been able to go before. Usually, the Houghton board meeting and the Wesleyan men’s retreat are on the same weekend. But this year they were not, so I was able to participate on Saturday.   

The speaker, Jeremy Kingsley, was great. His combination of humor, bluntness, and keep-it-simple inspiration communicated well. I was especially impressed with the theme of his last message. “Humility plus service equals spiritual greatness.”  The food was excellent and plentiful.  The snack bar was even open too.

During the day on Saturday, I joined three other men from our church on a team to participate in the nine activities provided—all very male oriented, of course.  Several of them I had never done before.  There was paint-ball target practice, horseshoes, basketball, archery, and the pit crew challenge.  On that one, team members took turns racing against the clock using an air gun to tighten tire bolts and loosen them on a mockup of a racecar.     I was not fast but I got the job done. I also had a chance to shoot skeet for the first time in my life, actually knocking down two of those bright orange clays.   Our team was proud to tour the disk golf course in one over par!  At the balloon launch challenge, we were deadly accurate.  At the air rifle target shoot, my group was not bad for a man with no practice.

But by far the best part of the day was the time spent in relationships. I had a chance to mingle with so many friends, old and new. We helped each other through the day, and enjoyed conversations, some long, some short.   It was the kind of day you wish for and so seldom get.  Now I know why men’s retreat is so popular.

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