ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life

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Summary of Ordinary Life for July 23, 2023

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Dear Ones -

I am trying an experiment. Though Ordinary Life is available here, on Constant Contact, and we have an outstanding website - thanks to others - and can be found on Facebook and Twitter, I have little or nothing to do with any of these - except, of course, providing content.

I have decided to join Threads and post there. Thanks to Wayne Herbert for helping me get setup. I am going to be the only one posting to this media.

It is a “work in progress” and we’ll see how it goes. I won’t overwhelm but will provide different content and updates than you will find on the other media for Ordinary Life . If you want to “follow” get the Threads app and look for “ordinarylifehtx”

This week in Ordinary Life Dr. Jim Bankston taught. I have a deep love, appreciation, and respect for Jim. He has set a tone and direction for St. Paul’s for which we are all grateful.

I took some notes on what Jim offered. He talked about the theological foundations for both God and humanity that can be found in the first eleven chapters of Genesis. He spoke about what sets these particular chapters apart from others that we have and how the faith community created the Bible and not the other way around.

H selected four stories to illustrate the themes of boundaries, transgression, consequences and grace. The stories he used were those of Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, the flood story, and the story of the Tower of Babel. He ended up applying these to our contemporary setting with a special focus on how in picking Abraham to communicate how people were to live, God was choosing migrants.

Both the video and audio will be posted some time this week. When they are, I encourage you to listen or to watch them. It will be worth the time spent.

I had asked Jim to teach because I gave the sermon in both services at St. Paul’s. The text of the sermon can be found using the links below.

That’s a brief summary of this week’s time in Ordinary Life.

If you would like to know how to make a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here for video instructions.

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

To read or download the text of the sermon “Everyone Belongs,” click here.

In order to view the announcement slides, click here.

To listen to or download today’s talk by Rev. Dr. Jim Bankston, please use the audio player link below.

To watch the video recording of today’s talk, use the YouTube link below.