Showing posts with label standard of living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label standard of living. Show all posts

Monday, June 25, 2012

2012.06.25 Monday Morning Message

Greetings and warm regards from Pilgrim Presbyterian Church in Vinita, Oklahoma.

If you could, would you turn the clock back?  A columnist, writing in the Tulsa World, wrote "Maybe while praying for the America we want, we can remember the America we had."  Those words awakened my memory, and I realized that we must not live in the past. We can use the past for guidance and inspiration, but we can't go back.  We must go forward or we perish.  To live is to change.  The one thing that does not change is a fossil, and a fossil has been dead for a long time.  We should not fear change.

  • I remember the scourge of tuberculosis and polio epidemics, and I wouldn't want to go back to them.
  • I remember when Presbyterians would not ordain women ministers and when anyone who sold alcoholic drinks was barred from membership, and when the Revised Standard Version of the Bible was assailed as heresy, and I wouldn't want to put the clock back for any of that.

To live is to change, and we ought not fear that.

With blessings and in friendship.
Richard

Announcements:

We were blessed to have Brian Dishman and his family  in church yesterday.  He and his wife Motoko and daughter Rina live in Japan.  Rina played a special piano piece for our church service.  Also, Brad, his wife Edith and daughter Madison were in attendance.  We had a pew full of Dishmans.

SUNDAY, July 1
4TH OF JULY POTLUCK
Drinks and meat will be provided.
Bring a side dish and join us for a delicious meal.
Following morning worship at 10:00.

The Reverend Nancy Covington will be here.
All are invited to Communion.
Liz Logan will prepare the communion elements and invite 2 Elders or Deacons to help serve.
Sue Ratcliff is Worship Asst. for July.

Monday, July 7, 2008

2008.07.07 Monday Morning!

Top of the morning from Vinita, Oklahoma, where Pilgrim Presbyterian Church still sends out the good news of Jesus Christ from the corner of Thompson and Illinois.

Since the 4th of July, when we celebrated Independence Day, I've been thinking a lot about how difficult it must be for immigrants to understand America. We are a land of paradox!

The magnificent story of our nation began as a primitive country. Now, we are wealthy and powerful, yet health insurance is beyond the reach of millions of our people.

America produced Abraham Lincoln, and the KKK. Billy Graham is a household name as is Jeremiah Wright, another preacher.

We have a high standard of living, we eat well, but, how we do love our hot dogs! We have a rich musical heritage and we've invented be-bop. We've built a multi-billion dollar TV industry, and we sit to watch soap operas.

Contrasts galore!

We who have been born and raised in America seldom find these contrasts difficult to understand. Be patient with immigrants who are bewildered by them. Apart from Native Americans, all of us at one time were strangers in this fair land.

Peace,
Richard