• Fred's Blog

    Gods In Disguise

    It was not even a major miracle. No one walked on water or fed five thousand. As far as miracles go it was almost incidental. A nameless crippled man healed. But, in that city, it was a sign of something far more remarkable. It was an opportunity to redress an old offense to the gods. Years before, the story went, Zeus and Hermes disguised as poor travelers arrived in town and were made unwelcome. In response, they destroyed the city and all the people with the exception of one humble couple. Now, many years later, the descendants of those who had made that fatal mistake took the miracle to mean…

  • Fred's Blog

    What Must I Do To Be Saved?

    I have been reading Thomas Merton’s “No Man Is An Island” and toward the last part of the book he describes a man he names the “proud solitary” who has no personal core. He is hollow and living in fear he will be discovered and exposed for what he is. “Maddened by his own insufficiency, the proud solitary shamelessly seizes upon satisfactions and possessions that are not due him, that can never satisfy him, and that he will never really need. Because he has never learned to distinguish what is really his, he desperately seeks to possess what can never belong to him. In reality, the proud solitary has no…

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  • Fred's Blog

    Dear Landlord

    Bob Dylan wrote: Dear landlord Please don’t dismiss my case I’m not about to argue I’m not about to move to no other place Now, each of us has his own special gift And you know this was meant to be true And if you don’t underestimate me I won’t underestimate you. Reading all the messages of outrage at President Trump’s characterizations of Africa and Haiti as “shitholes” and his wonderment at why we cannot attract more immigrants from countries like Norway, I’ve been trying to get inside his head and come to some understanding of what he means by that and why he would say it that way. It’s…

  • Bible Studies

    The Philippian Jailer: Acts 16

    It’s easy to read Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi and not connect it to the people to whom he wrote. The words are so lovely. The scope of the theology is extraordinary and the depth of his emotion and attachment to them has inspired millions of people for thousands of years. Other than 1 Corinthians 13 there is likely no passage that surpasses Philippians 2 in describing the character and qualities of Christian love. These must have been unusual people to have stirred such feelings in Paul and caused him to be writing them from a Roman prison a long twelve years after he first met them. They…

  • Fred's Blog

    The Impossible Will of God

    Listen to “The Impossible Will of God”   Who doesn’t want to know the will of God? As a young man, that topic occupied me as much as any other. I recall reading Alan Redpath’s guidance that discerning the will of God is done best by aligning the lights of three beacons. First is circumstances. Second is the truth of Scripture. Last, the counsel of wise friends. If those line up there is good reason to believe you are in the will of God and your decision, while not guaranteed, will more likely be the right one. But, I have discovered over the course of my life that discerning the will…

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  • Bible Studies

    Peter’s Vision in Joppa

    1.  Three years ago when President Obama renewed diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba he said, “the United States will not be imprisoned by the past.” As I remembered and thought about the lesson this morning, I realized there is a connection between the two. It’s a connection that applies not only to nations but to organizations, corporations, churches, communities and individuals. How can we escape being imprisoned by the past? At the same time, how do we know the difference between that and losing our moorings and commitments to some basic and permanent values that define us? These moments of transition come in different forms and stages. Sometimes they…