The Spire Online

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A Righteous View of Healthy Eating

With the start of the new year, many of us are thinking about how to eat and live more healthfully in the year ahead. We have many different prophets telling us that they have the word on what really constitutes healthful eating and living. Obviously, good health and good food come in many different forms in many different cultures. In her new book, How the Other Half Eats, Priya Fielding-Singh…

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Baptism of the Lord -- January 2022

On the Sunday after Epiphany, the church celebrates the baptism of Christ by John the Baptist. This event happened when crowds of people came to be baptized by John and began to wonder if John was the Messiah. In Luke 3, as paraphrased in Eugene Peterson’s The Message, John answered the crowd and described what happened when Jesus was baptized: “I’m baptizing you here in the river. The main chara…

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Book Review -- Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

book by Bryan Stevenson Many books addressing social justice have an edge, but Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy has a heart. This is a book of stories, full of heartbreak and hope. There is the story of Henry, whom Bryan meets on death row, waiting to be assigned his execution date, not wanting his family to know when it is coming for fear of the pain it will cause them. There is the story of Walter w…

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Book Study with Louise Rogers -- January 2022

Monday mornings: January 10, 17, 24, 31 10:00 a.m. on Zoom Join Zoom meeting here Meeting ID: 862 8386 2174 Passcode: Guha4B We will talk about spiritual practices from the book The Walk by Adam Hamilton. In The Walk, Hamilton focuses on five essential spiritual practices that are rooted in Jesus’ own walk with God and taught throughout the New Testament. Each of these practices is a part of our d…

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Epiphany -- January 2022

When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. – Matthew 2:10-11 “From this story, we should learn how to bear ourselves aright toward our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, we sho…

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Message from Jo Forrest -- January 2022

At the turn of the year, you may resolve to make changes in your life, either to leave behind some bad habits or discipline yourself to those you think may help you thrive. Regardless of what you decide to do, set your intention for how you will respond to events. The year ahead will present some joyous events – graduations, births, weddings, new loves, or new jobs. In light of these, the A…

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Mission on the Move -- Maoni Orphan Care in Malawi

In 2012 Kenneth and Christine Nsona, seeing a great need to support the children of their hometown of Blantyre, Malawi, founded a daycare program that today supports 100-150 children ages 2 to 4, with an energetic curriculum that includes engaging them in needed preschool lessons, singing, socializing, and just having fun. Many of these children have been orphaned by the AIDS epidemic in Malawi.…

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