Blog of FPC Lebanon

Bible Reference(s): Joshua 24:1-4 / Matthew 25:1-13 Sermon by Rev. Terri Thorn Every day on my iPad I receive notifications of headlines from a variety news sources with diverse perspectives.  As each one pops up, with just a swipe of my finger across the screen, I can choose to read the article or delete it.  It's one of my favorite features.   So...a couple of weeks ago I received an odd type of notification from CNN but I didn't pay much attention to it.  Yesterday, it showed up again The little pop-up  read: "A new Star Wars trilogy. A "zombie" star that won't die. And a TV star returns.  Here is your politics-free news from the week." I'm not sure which is more sad...that CNN has to specifically sort out politics-free news for me...or that only thing they could come up with was Star Wars and Zombies. The truth is that we live in an unprecedented age of instant unfettered access to news feeds from all over the world.  At the same time, we also...

Bible Reference(s): Revelation 7:9-17 / Matthew 5:1-12 Sermon by Rev. Terri Thorn This reading from Revelation reminds me of a story about when we took our youngest child, Mark, to Purdue.  By the way, I don't usually share my family's personal stories from the pulpit. It's a promise I made to the Rob and the kids years ago...no sharing without permission...but Mark said this was OK to share.  Now, I know it will sound like I'm bragging, but Mark has always been a very good kid.  He is smart... and kind...and considerate...trust-worthy, reliable, loyal...an all-around great guy. However, Mark is also very, very, independent...almost to a fault.  In fact, I think his first sentence was "Mark do it."  From a very early age he was one of those kids who wanted to figure things out for himself.  By the time he was in first grade he was literally getting himself ready for school. He rarely wanted help...and usually, he did not need it.  As a result, there ha...