By NANCY PATRICK As we near the end of 2021 and begin the new year of 2022, we have a time for reflection—reflection on what has happened and what may happen in the future. I struggle to discern the difference between importance and irrelevance. I sometimes get busy or distracted and become bogged down in peripheral things. The older I
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By JIM NICHOLS This is not really a sports story, although a sports comment was the stimulus for it. As I am writing this, it is the college football “bowl season.” Teams have played their regular season games and the supposedly best teams now have a bonus game, a bowl game. When I was younger, there were just a few
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON Mention December 7 and most of our minds will go back in history to Pearl Harbor. It was a time Christmas became a time of depression and sadness for our country as we entered into the Second World War. Not only would the war be with Japan, but with a foe from a previous war, Germany. December
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After a year’s absence, thanks to COVID-19, the traditional Watch Night service will once again be held 10 p.m.-midnight, Friday, Dec. 31, at Macedonia Baptist Church, 608 N. Seventh St. Rev. Deori Newman, pastor of Ash Street Baptist Church, will preach the sermon. The service is sponsored by the Greater Abilene Ministers Alliance. The service, originally called “Freedom’s Eve,” commemorates
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Editor’s Note: To add church services to this list, email information to editor@spiritofabilene.com By LORETTA FULTON The traditional glow of candlelight will once again be experienced on Christmas Eve, as most churches return to in-person worship. COVID-19 and its variants are refusing to go away, but Christmas Eve services won’t be affected this year as much as in 2020. Some
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Jay Moore’s newest book, “Abilene Daily: Snapshots of Home,” contains one or morevignettes from Abilene’s history for each day of the year. Periodically, stories with some connection–however loose–to Abilene’s religious life will be featured in Spirit of Abilene. The book can be purchased at Texas Star Trading Co., 174 Cypress St. http://www.texasstartrading.com or call 325-672-9696. Books are $27.50. Following is
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By DAN R. STIVER “Resurrection happens every day.” This is a saying by Juergen Moltmann, one of my favorite theologians in his book, The Way of Jesus Christ. It means that the power and dynamics of the Resurrection are still present, not just long ago but continue to this day. Jesus came proclaiming that the Kingdom of God has drawn
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By JIM NICHOLS Every family has a set of Christmas traditions; they might not make sense to anyone else, but they are important to the family. The traditions are often accompanied by memories that reach outside the family itself. In this case I am thinking of my friends Neal and Bill, folks no longer in my life nor the life
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON This week’s title may seem strange, but the same theme connects all three. Most of us know of Stephen, a Christian in the first century stoned to death before an angry group in Jerusalem. We first learn of him in Acts 6, where he was chosen with six other men to serve the physical needs of the
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