church – Pot of Manna

Rebuilding With Nehemiah, Chapter 8 Day 2

Tuesday:

Text: 2 So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand.

Teach: Ezra was most likely reading the Torah, which contains the five books of Moses. This would be the basics of Jewish religion and civil law. The focus was probably on Deuteronomy. Why would this be important? The people realized that God enabled them to complete an impossible task. What else does this God have to say, and say to me, to us? Ezra gave them a solid foundation to understand the relationship God wanted and wants to have with his people.

Take: The day the people came together would be the equivalent of our New Year’s Day. A day of celebration and fresh beginnings. Chances are you’re not reading this on New Year’s Day, but it can be a day of fresh beginnings. No matter what kind of Bible reading plan you may have abandoned in the past, you can begin fresh today. And that doesn’t just apply to Bible reading, but any and all spiritual habits and disciplines.

Task: Find an app or a site on the internet, there are plenty to choose from. Or just start reading. Proverbs has 31 chapters. Read the chapter that corresponds with the numeric day of the month. Start reading a gospel. Start reading and keep going. And if you are a regular reader: may you be blessed and your tribe increase!

Thankfulities

I love making up words. I can’t help myself sometimes….

Anyway. I’ve read some posts that have been encouraging people to daily write about what they’re thankful for. I like this idea. I was impressed to even read that my older daughter is participating in this.

Realizing that I am already a day behind, I will consider two things for which I am thankful.

First, I am thankful for my dogs. We inherited our two from our youth pastor at our former church. At the time he thought he was going to be moving and starting work on his PhD. He felt it would be difficult enough to find a house for his growning famil to rent and suspected that he wouldn’t be able to take the dogs. His desire was that someone would adopt both dogs since they had been together since they were pups.

Here are the boys:
This is Lucky

And this is Spenser

And this is the boys taking me for a walk. <a href="” title=”Walking”>

I’m thankful that I found the split leash so that I can walk them together. I’m abundantly thankful that I found the no-pull harnesses. Before I had these two items, walking the dogs was next to impossible. Each time we walked I’m sure my arms grew a couple inches. They still pull me along, but that’s more because I’d rather stroll and they’re looking for an aerobic workout. I really love taking walks with them now–it’s good for both of us.

My second thankful thought belongs to my church.
Ashland Dickey Church of the Brethren

Nelson and I have been attending here since July 2011. I am a member. It is such a blessing to me to see my husband involved again and digging deeper spiritually. We also take our grandson and he has been getting so much from his time there as well. Just the other night, he and I had a pretty lengthy conversation (keep in mind, he’s only 6) about baptism. Tonight and tomorrow Nelson and I will be attending a marriage seminar, too.

This is our senior pastor, Pastor Tom.

Our congregation would appreciate your prayers for our pastor. On Wednesday evening he was admitted to an area hospital with Dengue Fever and pneumonia. Thanks!

Book Review: The Search Committee

The Search Committee
Tim Owens
Tyndale House Publishers, 2012, 258 pages

I’m still on the fence about this book. In some ways it felt like I was reading two books at once. It took some time to keep the characters all straight as the author switched between the story as it related to the committee’s search for the new pastor and the story as it related to the development and interaction of the committee members themselves. I also suspected pretty early on the direction that the committee was going to take in the end. (No, I’m not going to give that away!)

The parts of the story that dealt with the search process were witty in their presentation. Perhaps because I was a pastor for many years, and served as an interim, I found much that was relatable. It was also interesting to learn about the search process in a different denomination.

The portions of the book that dealt with the committee members discovering themselves seemed very dark at times. The relatable part was the diversity of personalities on the committee. Sometimes I don’t think we recognize the vast difference of persons that make up the church. To the author’s credit, he created characters that were both easy to like and dislike—I found myself feeling something about each of them.

It’s an ok book. I thought I would like it more.

To comply with new regulations introduced by the Federal Trade Commission, please mention as part of every Web or Amazon review that Tyndale House Publishers has provided you with a complimentary copy of this book or ARC.

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