Sweet Spots
Ideas and messages from Len Sweet.
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Don’t leave them hanging…
A tour guide in an Australian art museum always ends her tour with a certain piece of art. She says to the group, “And here, ladies and gentlemen, we conclude our tour with one of the finest pieces of sculpture in the entire museum. Notice the nobility of the face,…
Don ‘t forget the basics
Who are the worst general in US history? My votes would go to Horatio Gates, Ambrose Burnside, George Custer, George McClellan, to name only the first tier. But we don’t have a monopoly on ill-chosen military leaders. Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna ranks up there with the worst…
To be content
There are some things greater than “success.” In 1944 Stravinsky was commissioned by Billy Rose to write a short ballet for inclusion in a Broadway revue entitled “The Seven Lively Arts.” The choreographer, Anton Dolin, wired the composer in Hollywood after the first night: BALLET GREAT SUCCESS STOP CAN…
Overshoes
Sometimes our problems can overwhelm our progress. A second grade teacher had to deal with the first snowy day of the season. All the second-graders had worn their overshoes, and it was now time for their departure for home. Each little kid wanted help putting on his or her overshoes,…
Joy
A monk living in a monastery one day went out for a little walk in the woods. As he walked, he paused because he heard a bird singing. When the bird was finished he returned to the monastery, but nobody knew him and he didn’t know any of the persons…
A Man Under Authority / A Centurion’s Faith, An Elder’s Love
A Man Under Authority Story Lectionary July 26, 2015 Deuteronomy 28 Psalm 41: God the Healer Zechariah (20-23): All peoples will be drawn to the Jews 2 Kings 5: The Healing of Naaman the Syrian by Elisha due to the witness of a young Jewish girl Matthew’s Witness…
Whistling in the Dark
Whistling in the Dark Lectionary 26 July 2015 Ninth Sunday After Pentecost 2 Samuel 11:1-15 Psalm 14 Ephesians 3:14-21 John 6:1-21 Text to Life There are three kinds of people in the world. There are “the glass is half full” people. These are the optimists who always look for…
Psalm 40 paraphrased
Lord, I wait for you, and sometimes wait and wait. But you always hear my cry. You pull me up from the raging pit, You lift me out of the miry swamp. You set my feet on a rock You make my steps firm. Then you put a new song…
Preaching Tip 7/26/15
Let the children come…. If you want your young people to be in church, your teens, your young adults, then don’t take them out when they are young! Instead, create your sermons in a way that even the kids can participate. You can reach 6 and 66 year olds with…
Pastor’s Prayer for 7-26-15
“Loving and tender providence of my God, into your hands I commend my spirit; to you I abandon my hopes and fears, my desires and dislikes, my temporal and eternal prospects. To you I commit the wants of my perishable body; to you I commit the more precious interests of my immortal soul, for whose lot I have nothing to fear as long as I do not leave your care. Though my faults are many, my misery great, my spiritual poverty extreme, my hope in you surpasses all.”
St. Calude de la Colombiere