A Christian Publishing Ministry In The Missouri Ozarks

by Steve Goodier[1]

In Turin, Italy, an anonymous citizen wrote the tax office enclosing 10,000 Lira in the envelope and explained he had cheated on his income tax. He said it caused him to lose his appetite. Then he added, “If my appetite doesn’t improve I’ll send the rest.”

It sounds like an easy weight loss program, but I don’t think it could work for me. Guilt doesn’t keep me from eating. It has kept me awake more than once, however.

William Wirt Winchester’s widow Sarah built a bizarre mansion in San Jose, California, to assuage her feelings of remorse. It is a house built over a 38-year period at a cost of over five million dollars. The 160 room house has stairways that lead to blank walls, corridors that lead to un-openable doors, 13 bathrooms, 13 stair steps, 13 lights to a chandelier, 13 windows to a room, strange.

Her husband was the son of Oliver Fisher Winchester, manufacturer of the famous Winchester repeating rifle. The house is referred to as the “guilt house,” and was conceived as a never-ending building project to provide a home for spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles. Instead of addressing her grief and remorse in more therapeutic ways, Sarah’s project occupied the rest of her life.

The late Erma Bombeck called guilt “the gift that keeps on giving.” (She also said she came from a family of pioneers – said her mother invented guilt in 1936.) And it CAN be a gift that keeps on giving when it isn’t laid to rest. It can keep on giving problems to everyone it touches – emotional, physical and spiritual. It seems that if we don’t find a way to deal with it, guilt may deal with us in some frightening ways.

Do you have unresolved guilt? I’m not talking about “good” guilt, the feelings of shame or remorse that keep us from doing something incredibly stupid or hurtful. I mean unnecessary guilt. Over-anxiety and self-loathing about that which can no longer be changed.

If so, it may help to remember that:

+ In one day you can recognize where your feelings of guilt come from.

+ In one day you can decide to make necessary amends to those you may have hurt.

+ In one day you can decide to ask for forgiveness from others.

+ In one day you can exercise your spiritual power and choose to be

at one with God and the universe.

+ In one day you can decide to be gentler with yourself and allow yourself to experience the healing balm of acceptance.

+ In one day you can resolve to learn from the past and not repeat your behavior.

+ In one day you can choose to do something constructive with that guilt, and then continue every day until it is only a memory.

And best of all, that one day can be today.

__________

[1]Steve Goodier Publisher@LifeSupportSystem.com is a professional speaker, consultant and author of numerous books. Visit his site for more information, or to sign up for his FREE newsletter of Life, Love and Laughter at http://LifeSupportSystem.com

A sermon by Rt Reverend Ed Crabtree based on; John 14:23-29

Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

Home ownership is the cornerstone of the American dream,  but as a part of that dream society paints the picture that your home reveals who you are, and who you think you want to be.  The bigger the home, the more important and prosperous person you must be, has been the conventional wisdom that many people have held for years.  Passersby see a large mansion and think wealth and importance lives there, but when they see a small run down cottage they see the abode of poverty and degradation. [Read more →]

The role of a minister has for centuries been characterized in metaphor as that of a Shepherd, in light of that analogy, the following might be the accepted practice of a shepherd of men;

• The Shepherd is always willing to leave the 99 and go in search of the one, lovingly guiding the lost sheep back to the flock.
  (Matthew 18:12)
• The shepherd always listens to God for the wisdom to guide the flock to ever greener pastures.
  (Psalm 23:2)
• The shepherd makes sure the flock partakes of good clear water.
  (Mark 9:41)
• The shepherd never makes the flock beasts of burden.
  (Matthew 23:4)
• The shepherd never lassoes the sheep; hog ties ‘em and fleeces ‘em.

There’s a story of a poor man who had a very rich friend. The rich man-wanted, to help his friend, so one day he placed a fabulously expensive diamond in the poor man’s pocket as he lay sleeping. The rich-man-slipped away unnoticed. When the poor man woke up he went on living as he had always done, from hand to mouth with barely enough provisions for himself and his family. Eventually the rich man came to visit his poor friend after many years of traveling and was shocked to see him still as poor as, ever. “What did you do with-the diamond I left with you?” “What diamond?” replied the poor man. “Why the one I left in your pocket!” At that the poor man reached into his pocket and found the diamond. Spiritually we are like that poor man. [1] [Read more →]

1 Peter 5:8-10 (NIV)

[Read more →]

Lent, in Christian tradition, is the period of the liturgical year leading up to Easter. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial — for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In the process of self-denial, many traditions require one to “give up something” — [Read more →]

A river, normally peaceful and picturesque, flowed through a small town but heavy rains had caused the stream to swell to a raging torrent that had exceeded flood stage threatening the neighborhood where a crotchety old man lived.   The authorities recognizing the threat to those living near the river and realizing that the level of the river would continue to rise, issued warnings to the residents to evacuate their homes. [Read more →]

In my years of ministry, I have consistently called for unconditional brotherly love to become the cornerstone of society.  The reader will note that I state brotherly love as the context that I call for unconditional love, this context being within a religious realm.  I add “brotherly” to the unconditional love formula simply because some people cannot grasp the simple concept of the need to separate the spiritual from the carnal forms of love, especially when exploring these two greatly different concepts in church or study of  religious formula.  Simply put, carnal desires, while acceptable outside of a Christian Church, are not desirable inside.  And I have made this distinction very plain in my sermons and editorials, so that the reader who might be spiritually immature is not confused. [Read more →]

To all my friends and church family;

Without a doubt sometime this holiday season we have once again viewed the story of the birth of Christ, child born in a manger of a virgin Mother, and attended by Magi, shepherds and hosts on high.  But let us take a moment to reflect and be cognizant of the meaning of this story, which while veiled in allegory is a lesson that admonishes hope, joy, and peace among all mankind.  A lesson that becomes so poignant as we near the end of the year and the end of the first decade of the 21st century.

Here in the US, to my knowledge we have never known a decade when we as a people were so divided by anger and hate, when even the church itself has become divided along lines — not Catholic versus Protestant – but liberal versus conservative, inclusive versus exclusive, traditional versus progressive.

Let us celebrate the birth of Christ with faith and works in an attempt to make the new year and new decade far more improved than the one we are bidding farewell too, let us resolve to make the new year/decade one dedicated to the word, the words of Christ.  Let us resolve to bridge the gaps and overcome the fear that has prevailed among our own people, the fear that leads to anger and hate.  Let us look at the story that a small child offered so much hope that he changed the world.  And let us metaphorically give birth once again to that child and the joy and hope that his birth brought into the world.

With that thought in mind, we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and New Year.  May the God of peace and love continue to delight to dwell with and bless each and everyone one of you.

Approximately five hundred years ago, a religious renewal was launched on Germain soil in the town of Wittenburg by an Augustinian monk and theologian named Martin Luther. This Reformation, as it came to be called was a revolution heard around the European world. Its result was a split between the Roman Catholic version of Christianity and what we have come to know as Protestant Christianity. Like any great historical event, the reformation was the product of combined forces. [1] [Read more →]