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Mid-Week Missive |
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| Author: | Brad Miller | Created: | 10/30/2007 2:52 AM |  | | What is happening at BCC? |
| Preparation and Celebration | |
| By Brad Miller on11/29/2007 11:06 AM | |
| Greetings on this bright November day!
Sometimes I forget just what this season we call Advent is all about. I know we use it to prepare for the celebration of the birth of Jesus, and at the same time prepare for the promised return of Jesus. It is a time of celebrating what we have been given, and a time of preparing our hearts and lives for the future. It is a time for remembering and celebrating the past and then using those memories to rededicate our lives to fulfilling God’s will in the future. To put it in a nutshell, it’s about preparation and celebration. Preparing and celebrating…two things that we can not do enough of.
This past week, Carol and I were able to spend some time in Charleston, South Carolina. My cousin Jeananne and her husband John live there and my sister Kay Lynn and her husband Bruce came down for Thanksgiving, too. It was a nice relaxing week with way too much food and lots of good conversation, fun and reminiscing. At one point my sister and ... |  | |
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| | Give Thanks | |
| By Brad Miller on11/20/2007 9:46 AM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful day!
Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite times of the year. Growing up in Michigan it meant that it was growing increasingly colder and that winter – and skiing and sledding and skating – would soon be firmly entrenched. It meant that we would gather with cousins and grandparents and catch up and celebrate all that we had been given. It was a day when someone would always ask the question: “What are you thankful for?” It is a question I think we should ask often.
This Thanksgiving day, I hope you will take some time to really contemplate that question. The answer will be different for each of us, but at the heart of all the things that I can imagine we might be thankful for, one leaps to the top of the list: I am thankful for the witness of Jesus Christ and the grace of God that has given me every good thing in my life. Carol and our wonderful partnership in marriage, my family and their love, my friends ... | | |
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| | Always Listening | |
| By Brad Miller on11/14/2007 12:29 PM | |
| | Greetings on this beautiful day! (And it may rain today!)This noon I attended a monthly meeting of the Atlanta area Disciples of Christ ministers. Being so close to the assembly, and having had a chance to talk with most everyone there just this past weekend, I almost decided not to go. I have lots to do, meetings this evening…you know the drill. But, I decided that I should. These meetings are great chances to catch up with colleagues in a low key atmosphere, hear a though provoking program and have a good lunch. So I went.The presenter this week was Phil Foster a minister and psychotherapist in Decatur. He was presenting a program on Rumi, a mystic poet of the 13th century who came from a Sufi Islamic tradition. Now, poetry is not usually my bag. But as Phil talked about Rumi’s journey, about mysticism in general and then read some poems I found myself really pulled in, my imagination whirring. I was especially taken with a poem in which Rumi was talking about living in the world. At one point he wrote, “Al ... | | |
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| | In Control? | |
| By Brad Miller on11/7/2007 3:18 PM | |
| Greetings on this crisp fall day!
Yesterday I had one of those experiences at the office that, while small and seemingly insignificant, made me feel, however briefly, like I was in control of things. Let me explain:
Our new administrative assistant, Ruth Luckett, has been with us since Thursday November 1st and has already shown herself to be a nice addition to our staff. She has been working with Nichole Woodward to learn the computer software we use here; with Judy Mowrey to learn about office procedures and tasks; and with Chris Brooks to become more familiar with our website and how to maintain it. A lot has already been thrown at her and she has handled it all with good humor and grace.
Yesterday afternoon however, something suddenly was amiss. While attempting to update the prayer list on our website, she was suddenly unable to complete the task and the computer was denying her access to the program she needed. I tried to bring it up on my compute ... | | |
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| | From the Killing Fields to the Blessing Field | |
| By Brad Miller on10/31/2007 1:42 PM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful All Hallows Eve! At Brookhaven Christian Church, we have been blessed in different ways by all who have walked through our doors and entered into fellowship with our community of faith. But one group of folks have had a special impact on us. I speak of our Cambodian friends who have become such an important part of our community. They have blessed us with their friendship, joined in with our fellowship, become important parts of our w ... | | |
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| | The Past Catches Up... | |
| By Brad Miller on10/24/2007 2:00 AM | |
| Greetings on this wonderfully rainy day! He was a quiet young man; well groomed and well spoken. As he sat in my office he told me his story. How he had been involved with some criminal activity when he was younger, and how he had never been caught for a crime he committed, but how guilt and fear had led him away from his home state to seek a new beginning. He spoke of going to school and getting an education and a good job, of meeting a beautiful young woman, falling in love and asking her to marry him. She had said yes and the preparations were underway for the wedding. And then the thing he had always dreaded came back to haunt him. He received notice that he was required t ... | | |
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