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Continue reading →: Facing Father’s Day without a father
I’ve written extensively for my county’s newspaper, The Rockdale Citizen, about the hardship and grief associated with motherloss during the holidays and Mother’s Day (read it about it here and here). What about the loss of fathers during Father’s Day? Grief hits us most profoundly when special occasions occur, especially…
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Continue reading →: Celebrating 50 years of women ordination
This Sunday is Pentecost in the church calendar, a day in which we acknowledge the Holy Spirit’s outpouring on the early church (Acts 2). It will be a day to affirm God’s salvation and call “upon all flesh,” a calling whereby “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy…even upon my…
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Continue reading →: Playing Fair: Christians and the Fair Trade movement
When Jesus told his disciples in the gospel of John that he was the “Bread of Life,” it meant that he would nourish people physically and spiritually. Jesus used food and fellowship to fill the empty stomachs of the poor around him, even those individuals who were outcasts because of…
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Continue reading →: Take time to be with loved ones
I have spent a lot of time in gardens this year, more time than ever before. One of them was a large garden–Gibb’s Gardens up in Canton–and the others were gardens of those who attend my church. At church, we have been working on a prayer garden of our own…
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Continue reading →: “God is Love”
Although there is a prevailing myth that the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath, the most consistent thread that runs throughout both the Old and New Testaments is that God is love (1 John 4:8). Throughout the Old Testament, God is constantly calling a people back…
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Continue reading →: The Fragile Church Community
I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met who don’t go to church for some reason or another, who stay away because the church is “hypocritical,” or who disdain those lofty cathedrals because churches have been places of spiritual or emotional abuse rather than places of healing. I’ve served…
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Continue reading →: The day after Easter: Fear and Joy
According to Matthew’s gospel, on the morning that Jesus rose from the dead, several women were commissioned to tell the disciples all that had taken place. It says that they left the tomb “with fear and great joy” (28:8). Fear and joy is not a likely pair. Usually, we experience one…
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Continue reading →: If this gate could talk…An Easter Reflection
I am the East Gate, and I have seen the trials and triumphs, the misery and the marvel that is the life and times of Jerusalem. I am a proud gate standing sentinel for a proud and holy city. I remember the day I was commemorated too. From the Temple,…
Engaging Heart, Mind, and Soul
Rev. Dr. Joe LaGuardia
Rev. Dr. Joe LaGuardia is a pastor, writer, and chaplain residing in Florida. He is author of three books and regular contributor to Smyth & Helwys’ Formations Series. His articles have appeared in USA Today, Baptist News Global, Christian Ethics Today, TCPalm, and Rockdale Citizen.
Baptist Spirituality explores the intersection of faith and culture incorporating biblical scholarship, culture and the arts, politics, science, and theology.
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