Tag: Jesus

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When Nobody Knows Your Name

Gary Furr

Well, I was walking around as a suburban kid in Dayton, Ohio in the early 70s singing this song, if you can imagine. Motherless children have a hard time when their mother is gone. Motherless children have it so hard when their mother is gone. Motherless children have a very hard time. All that weeping, all that crying. Motherless children have it so hard when their mother is gone. Oh, people say that a sister will do when the mother is gone. People say that a sister will do when the mother is gone. Oh, people say that a sister … Continue reading When Nobody Knows Your Name

Blues, Music, Robert Johnson, Theology and LifeLeave a comment

Hope With Weeping and Consolations

Gary Furr

Musical Introduction: “Talk About Suffering” (Singing) “Talk about suffering here below and let’s keep loving Jesus. Talk about suffering here below and let’s keep following Jesus. Oh, the gospel train is coming. Now don’t you want to go? And leave this world of sorrow and trouble here below. Talk about suffering here below and let’s keep loving Jesus. Talk about suffering here below and let’s keep following Jesus. Oh, can’t you hear it, father? And don’t you want to go? And leave this world of sorrow and trouble here below. Oh, can’t you hear it, mother? And don’t you want … Continue reading Hope With Weeping and Consolations

Family, Justice, Love, Parenting, Politics, Reinhold Niebuhr, Story

Love, Justice, and Perseverance

Gary Furr

I read an excellent post this morning from Rich Havard, who was in our congregation as a student and now works in community building and social change in his adult life. It is an excellent piece about the struggles of being a person who is intentional in his spiritual journey working in a real world where sometimes there is puzzlement or antipathy toward the notion. He asked, “What place do spirituality and love have in the quest for a just world?” He spurred me to think about it. It’s an excellent piece I commend for your thinking. In his book, … Continue reading Love, Justice, and Perseverance

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Troublesome Waters

Gary Furr

A world of trouble going on, and everybody’s talking about it. I had emergency retinal reattachment surgery last Friday, and I’m stuck at home this week getting over it. Helplessly watching the mess of a world. A dear friend, Miss Jeanie, the hospice nurse who sat with my Dad until he died and me until they took his body, just went through surgery. It went well. But I owe her for being with me on that terrible day, forever. I’m sending her all the gospel songs I have on CDs to listen to. She loves that music. But I have … Continue reading Troublesome Waters

Disabled, Disease, Institutions, Jesus

In His Right Mind  

Gary Furr

Reading the Bible Amid the Culture Wars  A lot of questions could preoccupy us as we think about reading scripture. The whole idea of demons and devils is unsettling, disturbing.  But we can get sidetracked onto a lot of other questions.  We could ask the scientific question, “Are demons real and how would they go into pigs?  Or were the pigs disturbed by the commotion?”  We could ask a psychological question, “Is this just a description of mental illness?” which is our own modern preoccupation.  Or the moral question, “Hey, what about the destruction of that property?  Someone owned those … Continue reading In His Right Mind