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Reflections on 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 - Thanks--giving By Lee Hemen (Retired Pastor) November 26, 2020 "Since the "Mayflower" had left England nine weeks behind schedule, the New World's harsh weather threatened their very survival... Winter took its toll. Journal entries feature the same melancholy theme week after week, for months on end: "... Aboute noone, it began to raine ... at night, it did freeze & snow ... still the cold weather continued ... very wet and rainy, with the greatest gusts of wind ever we saw ... frost and foule weather hindered us much; this time of the yeare seldom could we worke half the week." That winter more than half the heads of households perished. Aboard ship only five of eighteen wives lived through the ravages of scurvy, pneumonia, and tuberculosis. An entry for March 24th reads: "This month thirteen of our number die. And in three months past dies halfe our company ... Of a hundred persons, scarce fifty remain, the ...

Ramblings from Retirement: Give Thanks! By Lee Hemen (Retired Pastor) November 21, 2020 Thanksgiving is coming and it is one of my favorite holidays. The reasons for me are many because I not only love the food and family time but I enjoy what Thanksgiving represents. It is truly an American holiday where we are encouraged to pause and give thanks to God for the blessings He has given us. We discover that the early Pilgrims encouraged this with not just a one day celebration but with their entire lives as well. And far from being the black and white dressed grim faced people many think they were the Pilgrims were actually very joyous and colorful people. They came to these shores not to inflict slavery, as some would erroneously have you swallow, but they came here for religious and personal freedom. We discover that within a very short period of time that their communal form of governance caused huge problems with their colony and they decided to give each person the freedom to produc...

Ramblings from Retirement: Hypocrisy can run silent and deep! By Lee Hemen (Retired Pastor) November 14, 2020 I learned in High School that in ancient Roman religion and myth Janus was the god of beginnings and endings, gates, transitions, time, duality, and often his image was found in doorways, passages, or the frames of houses. He was often depicted with two faces, one facing forward and one backward. In theaters we often see two face masks: One depicted by a frown and the other by a smile. The word hypocrisy comes from the Greek word meaning taking on an assumed character which is not truly your own; being two-faced. When one is called “two-faced” it comes from the idea of being a hypocrite. Christians are often called hypocrites by those who do not understand what it means to be “Christian.” Christians are made perfect in the eyes of God through their faith and trust in Christ, but they are not perfect in their humanity. Does this mean Christians should not strive to be what they ...

Ramblings from Retirement: Do you live an easy chair faith? By Lee Hemen (Retired Pastor) November 7, 2020 “Give me liberty, or give me death!” is a quotation attributed to Patrick Henry from a speech he made to the Second Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775, at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia. Henry is credited with having swung the balance in convincing the convention to pass a resolution delivering Virginian troops for the Revolutionary War. Henry knew that freedom often demands our personal sacrifice. However what many American Christians have conveniently forgotten is that our freedom was bought with a price and maintaining it can require a sacrifice from each of us as well. Jesus related to his disciples that a time would come when a “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. When you are persecut...

 Ramblings from Retirement: The most important time is now. By Lee Hemen (Retired Pastor) November 2, 2020 I went out to lunch the other day because I had been working at church trying to get our live video feed working properly. (It is still a work in progress.) I stopped by and got something and in the fast food place was a young man sitting there reading his Bible. Curious, I asked him which book he was reading from and he related it was Genesis. We had a short discussion about the Scriptures and I got my order and ate. This got me to thinking though about the words of Psalm 119:11 where the Psalmist tells God: “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (Psalms 119:11 NIV)” These are good thoughts and I remembered how I was encouraged to do just that as a young Christian. In thinking about this however I realized that few looked at the words before this verse or those afterwards as well. So let’s take a quick look at what the Psalmist writes: “How can...