Monthly Archives: December 2016

My wife, Gwenn, and I enjoy watching Christmas and Christmas related movies during the days before Christmas.  Two questions often are asked: what was your best Christmas ever, and of course,  what was your worst.  The worst always seems to … Continue reading →

I just returned from JOY’s annual trip to the Show Palace Dinner Theater in Hudson, Florida. The show was great as usual, and it was wonderful to share fellowship with brothers and sisters from JOY! (Thanks to John for arranging … Continue reading →

Ah, the opening lines of the Christmas story!  I can still hear those words spoken in the sing-song voice of a little child’s recitation at the Sunday School pageant on Christmas Eve. Each year the story opened with the same … Continue reading →

Before moving to Ocala and joining Joy, Paulette and I lived in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and were members of a Moravian church.  There are many similarities, and even old historical ties, between Lutherans and Moravians, but I would like to … Continue reading →

Christmas is just around the corner and people all over town are wishing you a Merry Christmas, or perhaps they say “Happy Holidays” instead.  Bumper stickers abound telling us to keep Christ in Christmas, and we hear it on the … Continue reading →

In Matthew 19:26 it says, “Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  So, then, does that mean pigs can fly?  Well, maybe…  but I don’t think that’s the kind of possibility … Continue reading →

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.” (Matthew 1:18, Authorized Version). So begins the story … Continue reading →

When I was a child, I kept pestering my parents for a bike. All my friends had one, why not me? It turns out that they had been struggling with this issue, since I was 11 and my 10 year … Continue reading →

Sometimes I get a little worried about the church.  We’ve been without a permanent pastor at JOY Lutheran for almost a year and I’m concerned that we may be forgetting who’s in charge here.  Pastor Wayne is graciously filling our … Continue reading →

Waiting is something we all know about. We wait in the doctor’s office, in the supermarket line, at the traffic light. We’re put on hold when we’re making a phone call. We wait for sleep in the wee hours of … Continue reading →