I will be out of the pulpit this week. I hope you will be in attendance and welcome my good friend Tom Rodgers. Tom, pictured here with his wife Twila, are long time residents of Thornville. They are faithful attenders of Grace Lutheran Church in Thornville. Tom has filled in for me many times over the years Tom also has a close friendship with Les Wolfe. They both served in the Licking County firehouse system in different houses.  My family and I will be bak for Pentecost on June 8. blessings

  It's a special weekend and a way to celebrate that not many other countries truly understand or conceptualize quite like the good ol US of A can. So many men and women have given of themselves so that we can have the freedom to just be free . To sit here on a Sunday morning, in whatever denomination or group you want to align yourself with, and just sing song and worship in a way that you find find pleasing to you.  Many folks these days do not truly understand the religious implications that went into and formed the birth of this country. I can remember my 7th grade American history teacher not even wanting to touch on it. That was way back around 1983-84. It's not the kind of story that garners the flashy, supersonic way people want to look at things. Religion is a messy, personal subject for many. It's easier to explain things without pushing God and belief and reason out to the forefront. We are America. We are independent. We are free. Lets just leave it at that. But...

  We've all been there. The experience of letting someone down that is so near and dear to us is something many of us live with to our dying day. The regret, the shame, the hurt that is felt inside sticks with a person worse than peanut butter sticks to bread. Many times the letdown came in the most unintentional way. The person to blame is often seeing to do something they thought was good or even outstanding. But, what was accomplished winds up bringing consequences that even the best of friends can't bear or shoulder up.  We've been looking at people who had personal interections with Jesus following his resurrection. Today we are walking into a touchy situation. Every circle will have people closer to each other and some who are more of "associates". How close were the Twelve as a whole? There was the twelve and then there was an inner three with Jesus, John, James and Peter, it seems, were somewhat closer with the Savior than the rest. Then, quite clearly fro...

  AS we walk toward Pentecost we are taking a look at some of the people Jesus interacted with after He rose from the grave. The 4 gospel accounts give us plenty to work with as we see Him sharing and appearing before whole groups or suddenly being there behind locked doors.  Matthew doesn't give much an account of interaction with the group of disciples. He does include the women coming to the tomb early in the morning. You get a feel that the real mindset was to make the religious leaders and the Romans look terrible (and they were) for their treatment of Jesus. The soldiers are paid off for sharing a false testimony about what they experienced at the empty tomb. The women get just a little mention and then the Great Commission is given to go into all the world.  Mark is a slam bang fest all the way through. It is said Mark got much of his info from Peter's accounts of what happened. Every chapter seems like a smack boom bang with some wild happening or some account ta...

It's one of my favorite passages. I have covered it many times. What more could I say about it? After a long week at the bank, I am choosing to recycle some material and bring a message on this very passage from my Shanktification blog that I used regularly while at Thornville Methodist. Hope you enjoy. Just follow the link. https://shanktification.blogspot.com/2015/04/he-follows-you.html