SALVATION SWING
I remember back, as though it was yesterday, when my daughters were just little tykes. There was a great playground just down the hill from our seminary apartment where the girls would climb, slide and swing.
Day after day they’d ask, "Mom, Dad, can we go to the park and swing?"
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Lutheran
FOUR CHAPLAINS
It was the evening of Feb. 2, 1943, and the U.S. Army Transport Ship Dorchester was crowded to capacity. Hans J. Danielsen, the ship's captain, was concerned and cautious. He knew they were in dangerous waters; German U-boats were constantly prowling these vital sea lanes,
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Lutheran
THE NEW DEAL
Between the years 1933 and 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted a series of economic programs called "The New Deal." His programs served as a response to the effects of the Great Depression, and "focused on what historians call the "3 Rs": Relief, Recovery, and Reform.
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Lutheran
LOVE'S OLD-FASHIONED NOTION
Tina Turner once asked a powerful question, one that became a hit song of the early-eighties. She asked, "What does love have to do with it?" Her song is replete with two, rhetorical questions: "What's love but a second hand emotion" and "Who needs a heart, when a
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Lutheran
SATISFIED
News flash: I like food! You know -- with a dash of seriousness -- it doesn't take a master chef to see that I've had a love-affair with food for some years. I'm like a lot of Americans; I often eat more than I need in order be "satisfied."
A number of years ago, I went to
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Lutheran
GIFT OF PEARLS
A number of years ago, when our oldest was just a little tyke, a Chinese man we knew gave my wife a string of pearls as a gift. Anyway, the pearls he gave her were different from the ones we might find in a jewelry store; they were natural, not cultivated.
Now, the most common
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Lutheran
SHOOT THE MOON
The other day I needed to take my mind off things, so I opened my computer and played a game of hearts. Now, like all card games, no matter how diligent you play, there's time when the unexpected happens, and you're hand turns to disaster. One sneaky move from an opponent and it's
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Lutheran
LIGHTS FOR OUR PATH
A couple of years ago, I went outside after dark to look at the stars in ways we couldn’t while back in Minnesota. I stepped from the porch, with the lights of course, and then I tripped on the water-hose. Down I went, taking my wife and daughter with me. Truth be known —
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Lutheran
THE LIBERTY BELL
One of the most, iconic symbols of our national heritage --the Liberty Bell --hangs magnificently in the city of brotherly love. In 1751, the Pennsylvania Assembly ordered the bell to commemorate the commonwealth's fiftieth anniversary of William Penn's 1701 Charter of
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Lutheran
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DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY
Some people have dogs; some have cats, and some have both. Our dogs — well, they don’t worry about their fur. As far as we know, they don’t worry about much of anything. When they’re hungry they let us know. When the need to go outside and do their thing, they let us
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Lutheran
COMMISSIONING OATH
When I hear the word "commission," the first thing that comes to my mind is the commission military officers receive when they enter into service. Commissioned officers derive their authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the
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Lutheran
CHURCH ON FIRE
Here's an interesting article that goes well with Pentecost. The article’s title read, "Fireworks Blamed for Church Fire." The story begins, "Fireworks were blamed for a fire that tore through a church in Brush Prairie, on Monday... . The church's roof collapsed as the fire
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Lutheran
RIVER OF GOD
Ever since moving to the valley, my eyes have been drawn to the mountains and the river. There’s days in the summer months when I ride my bike to the river, and gaze at the its powerful flow. It’s fascinating for me to watch the river at different stages. Sometimes it looks
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Lutheran
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MEMORIAL DAY: REMEMBER THE MARTYRS
It’s honorable and fitting this morning we remember the sacrifice of our nation’s great veterans, who gave their lives on battlefields abroad and here at home. By some estimates, nearly 1.3 million Americans have shed their blood and died for freedom’s cause.
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Lutheran
LIVING STONES
I have to tell ya, I’m so proud of my baby girl. She's working on a project for the school’s science-fair by growing citrine crystals in the basement. What normally takes thousands of years to do in nature; chemists have somehow been able to reproduce in a matter of weeks. I think
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Lutheran
AN EVERYDAY LADY
On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to obey a bus driver’s order to give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. At the time of her action, Rosa Parks served as the secretary of her local NAACP chapter. But even so, she acted as a private
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Lutheran
ABANDONED
A little over a week ago I made a pilgrimage over to Wally Mart – I’m sure to get something for dinner. Anyway, while getting out of the car, I noticed that the car in front of me had in it a small child – a baby, sitting in his or her car seat, sleeping away. All the while the baby’s
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Lutheran
BORN IN A BARN
Have you ever heard it said to you: "Were you born in a barn?" Or maybe this variation -- "You weren't born in a barn -- shut the door!" I tell ya what; I use to hear that said a lot growing up -- either referring to that I had left the door open, or that my room was becoming
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Lutheran