Ed Jones I’m often told that one doesn’t need to attend church to be a Christian. While I agree that you don’t need to go to church to be a Christian, there is some clarification necessary. Let’s define what it means to be a Christian by looking at a person who Jesus said was a Christian,…
Tag: Fellowship at the Ranch
Religion, September 2019
Fellowship at the Ranch
Ed Jones Tyranny of the Urgent “Now!” “Now!” is the demand of the urgent. Like your phone ringing. The dishes in the sink. Clothes to be washed. The yard that needs to be mowed. One more thing to finish at the office before heading home. “Now!” To which a lot of us dutifully responds with…
Religion, September 2019
Fellowship at the Ranch: What’s in a name?
Ed Jones Juliet: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.” Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2) Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet meet and fall in love in Shakespeare’s tale of “star-crossed” lovers. They are doomed from the start as members of two warring families.…
Religion, August 2019
Fellowship at the Ranch
In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, the Apostle Paul admonishes us to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”. Initially, I had quite a bit of trouble with this passage. Expressing gratitude can be challenging even when we feel blessed. But what about when we are enduring…
Religion, July 2019
Fellowship At The Ranch
Dare I Ask Others to Follow My Example? “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1) Paul knew he followed Jesus, so he did not hesitate to tell the Corinthian Christians to imitate his walk with the Lord. He knew the Corinthian Christians needed an example, and he was…
Religion, June 2019
Fellowship at The Ranch
Envy Have you ever opened your closet full of clothes and thought, “I have nothing to wear” or opened your overstocked refrigerator thinking, “There’s nothing to eat”? Man has an amazing propensity to stand in the midst of lavish blessing and lament that he is poor and needy. How does this happen? In a word,…
Religion, May 2019
Fellowship At The Ranch
Out of the mouths of babes Ed Jones Quite a while ago, when my now 22-year-old granddaughter, Hannah, was four, she noticed that I was agitated about something. The fact that I can’t now recall what caused my anxiety testifies to just how serious it was. Wanting to help her granddad, she climbed up on…
Religion, April 2019
Fellowship At The Ranch
Wouldn’t it be nice Edwin Jones How many of you lived for Saturday morning and the parade of Westerns that aired in the ’50s? My favorites were The Lone Ranger, Sky King, Wild Bill Hickok, Fury, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Annie Oakley, The Range Rider, Sargent Preston of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,…
Religion, March 2019
Fellowship At The Ranch
Ed Jones “I wouldn’t be so irritable, if I got a little respect around here!” So, another tiff in the Jones household began. Dad blamed mom and mom would counter and fire back. Isn’t that just like all of us. We think that our problem is someone else. So-and-so made me mad. Unfortunately, that is…
Religion, February 2019
Fellowship At The Ranch
What is church? Growing up, I always thought of a church as a huge building with soaring arches and stained glass windows. The interior boasted marble columns, finely crafted pews, a marble altar and statuary that would be the envy of the finest Greco-Roman museum. As I grew older, my concept of church evolved into…