Prairie Pastoral

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

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May 10, 2023 | 1 Comment

The Spiritual Gift of Suspicion

You may have heard these before: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in tongues, and interpreting tongues. These are the spiritual gifts (or at least the ones listed in 1 Corinthians). 

Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine in Suspicion (1941)Add exhortation, giving, leadership, mercy, prophecy (again), service, and teaching (from Romans); apostleship, evangelism, the pastorate, prophecy (yes, again), and teaching (from Ephesians); and the sometimes uncomfortable gifts some scholars include like celibacy, hospitality, martyrdom, missions, and poverty. 

Healing sounds great. Martyrdom, not so much. Nevertheless, they are all gifts from God.

Yet, I want to offer the modest proposal of a subcategory of spiritual gifts. I want to add the spiritual gift of suspicion. Hear me out. [Read more…]

Deception, Discernment, Sin, Spiritual gifts, Spiritual maturity Tagged: discernment, fraud, guilt, spiritual gifts, suspicion, trust


May 3, 2019 | Leave a Comment

How to leave a church

Some years ago. I bumped into a woman who had been attending our Sunday morning worship for over a year. She’d been active in adult education, and I’d been touched when she brought me a small vase at my family’s Christmas open house. I considered her part of the church family.

On the day I bumped into her, though, it had been several weeks since we’d seen her.

“Hey,” I said, “We’ve missed you at church.”

“Oh,” she replied. “I don’t go to your church anymore.”

Pause for my stunned silence. [Read more…]

Church, Criticism, Deception, Leadership, Trust Tagged: leaving church, self-examination


November 17, 2015 | Leave a Comment

Blind

It’s a Tuesday and an unexpected day at home due to an early power outage. My schoolteacher husband is here along with my kids, so “working” from home is, well, a challenge.

I rouse my family for lunch and then declare it tidy-time, i.e. pick-up-your-dirty-socks time, and I volunteer to clean the kitchen. By the time I’m finishing, I feel some pressure to get back to “work”—Christmas is coming, after all.

“All done,” I declare to myself with satisfaction, until my daughter wanders through the room. [Read more…]

Deception, Fear, God, Prayer Tagged: 2 Thessalonians, daughter, mistakes


This is the day that
the Lord has made;
let us rejoice
and be glad in it.

– Psalm 118:24
Rev. Dr. MJ Romano

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