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

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September 29, 2020 | Leave a Comment

Frustration

(Adapted from a sermon preached September 6, 2020.)

Remember the movie Bruce Almighty, about the man whom God allows to be God just for a while? There’s a scene, early in the movie, in which Bruce is done, just done. He’s tired of his mediocre job, his mediocre apartment, his mediocre life, and he blames his mediocrity on God.

“God is a mean kid sitting on an anthill with a magnifying glass, and I’m the ant. He could fix my life in five minutes if He wanted to, but He’d rather burn off my feelers and watch me squirm.”

Bruce may have not been altogether wrong. Bear with me. 

This is a meditation on frustration. [Read more…]

Fear, Hope, Jesus Christ, Prayer, Suffering, Trust, Uncategorized Tagged: frustration, pandemic, prayer, Romans 8


October 18, 2019 | 5 Comments

Eulogy for Larry

Larry and his parents were lifelong members of our church. Larry and his father were ruling elders at one time. That’s not to say, though, that they were pillars of the church. Perhaps crumbling pillars, but not pillars in that legends-of-faith sort of way. I’ll explain.

Larry got into trouble with drugs back in the 1970’s. He was arrested a few times and then got clean. Some brain cells were lost in the process, but he was still likable, functional, and kind. He stayed clean for decades. That’s when I got to know him. [Read more…]

Hope, Remembrance, Small town, Suffering Tagged: eulogy, peace, thanksgiving


May 2, 2018 | 1 Comment

When to ask why

I was sitting in a darkened sanctuary two Sundays ago with a few of our youth. Their friend Dakota had just died. Through tears, one asked, “Why? Why would God do this?”

“God didn’t do this,” I replied. “God didn’t look down from the sky tonight and say, ‘Her, I want her.’ We just live in bodies that aren’t made to last, and sometimes bad things happen. That’s why God gave us a better life, an eternal life, to come.”

I don’t know if the youth bought it or not. [Read more…]

God, Small town, Suffering Tagged: death, youth


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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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Bible Verse of the Day

For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
Romans 5:19
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LaJunta Presbyterian Church

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