Sometime in high school, feeling my adolescent bravado, I started calling my dad, “the cheapest man on the face of the earth”. I could tell a lot of stories to illustrate this, but when we ate out, and we rarely ate out, no matter where we ate out, dad slowly opened the check, shuttered, and […]
Author Archives: paulrpurdue
Scientists have categorized somewhere around 160,000 different kinds of months. The four inch tulip-tree silk moth is part of the nearly 1 million varieties of insects in the world. A newborn baby Blue whale baby is 23 feet long and weighs 2 tons. It is one of the 1.5 million categorized species of animals in […]
In 597, King Nebuchadnezzar’s forces laid siege to Jerusalem coming over the walls and through the gates and placing Zion under martial law. The Babylonian troops looted Solomon’s Temple and David’s Palace carrying off sacred vessels, the queen’s jewels, the army’s weapons, and national banners as trophies of war. They deported princes, business leaders and […]
On this world Communion Sunday, as I preach in English and Hai Htoo and Wisinee translate into Karen, there will be moments where you may have to wait until someone says something you understand. Could we take these slower moments and practice loving our neighbors as ourselves? Maybe we could do some holy day dreaming […]
I answered my phone and an unfamiliar but cheerful voice boom, “Hey Paul, this is Tony Felts. I’m the director of Parks and Recreation and I am so glad you have signed Lewis and Caleb up to play baseball”. After some pleasantries, Tony focused in, “Paul, I’ve been talking to your buddy Kyle Ruleman and […]
Over the next few weeks we are asking, “What If The Bible Is Still Good News?” Last week, we considered how different lenses can help us navigate the different types of literature we encounter in the Bible: parables, poetry, personal letters, and people’s stories. We remembered that 48 of the 66 Bible books are named […]
I want to invite you to take out a Pew Bible and open it about two pages and look at the Table of Contents. Peruse the titles. Maybe, you are noticing that 24 of the 39 Old Testament or Hebrew Bible Books are named after people: Jeremiah, Ester, Ruth! The New Testament is even […]
“In the beginning”, the Creation Hymn declares that the Earth was covered in darkness. When you think of “the Earth”, do you think of the Blue Marble photograph of earth floating in outer space? On December 7, 1972 Apollo 17 flew far enough away from earth to fit the whole planet in the camera’s viewfinder, […]
Dear Friends, Perhaps your phone alerted you to the all too unimaginable evil that unfolded today at the Annunciation Church and Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Our thoughts and prayers fail to contain the depths of sorrows brought on by the epidemic of gun violence affecting our land. As I have prayed for the families, […]
The Franklin County Ministerial Alliance did not meet during the summer, so my Senior Pastor sent me to represent our church at the August meeting. I was fresh out of seminary, in my first appointment, and my second month at the church. After the preachers finished their second, third or fourth trip to the breakfast […]
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