Hold out the Word of Life

Busy day today. First off I dropped off Scout at "A Handsome Hound" for her day-spa experience. Actually, it's more like a wild bath followed by running around the salon, chatting with her friends, and generally goofing off all day before being picked up in the afternoon.

I really should have taken a "before" picture to post, because she's so unbelievably scruffy and really does clean up nicely (and, please, those of you who are thinking is he talking about the labradoodle or the picture to the left? just keep your laughter to yourself...). The only problem is that the "handsome" part of the equation only lasts about 90 minutes once she gets home!

My real focus this morning is Sunday's message. I've been invited to "preach" at Palm Harbor United Methodist Church this weekend. I put the word preach in "quotes" because that's not what I do. I'll be talking, I tell them, during the time-slot typically reserved for a sermon. They can call it "The Message" if they like, or even "Bringing the Word" - but the only time I've ever preached was "at" Andrew and Naomi when they were teenagers and - believe me - it wasn't pretty.

More about this after the weekend (when I'll know what I actually said!). They want me to talk about "HOPE", and generally kick-off the church-wide Advent study using my book, "In My Heart I Carry A Star". It's one of those congregations where the minister usually uses Powerpoint slides to illustrate parts of the message - so that's pretty much where I am today.

Here's one of the slides; I'm using it to support the idea that hope is like light that we carry. and how do we, as the First Century blogger Paul writes in a post to his friends in Philippi, "Hold out the word of life." (I found the image on the Internet, unattributed)

I'm also looking forward to what I pray turns out to be a good interview with Jamie on SpiritFM. A couple of segments of our conversation will be featured on his "The Way Home" drive-time show this afternoon. He said the feature should air "starting at 4:20ish."

So, no deep profundity from yours truly today, so I'll leave it to the First Century blogger Paul to finish with balance of his post: "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing."

Amen and Amen....