Jeffrey C. Long

This song by Arrested Development says a lot about how I feel about religion these days. I haven’t been free to talk about it here while pastoring Filer Mennonite. And not surprisingly that experience had a negative impact on my faith. I’m finally making a turn around. But it’s remarkable how ridiculous the whole enterprise [...]

[Read more →]

Romans 10:5-13 For Moses writes about the righteousness of the law, “The one who does them will live by them.” 6 But the righteousness which is of faith says this, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down); 7 or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that [...]

[Read more →]

Today is the second sunday of lent. Which is a time of rehearsal of the basics of our faith. Also a rehearsal of the foundational stories of our faith. Today we are looking at the story of God’s promise to Abram that he would multiply his descendents like the stars of the sky. One of [...]

[Read more →]

In “The Contemplative Pastor” Eugene Peterson writes “How can I persuade a person to live by faith and not by works if I have to juggle my schedule constantly to make everything fit into place.” I’ve recently begun a discipline of slowing down and absorbing more of my world. I’ve noticed that I hurry through [...]

[Read more →]

I’ve been using two online resources for daily Bible reading that I wanted to share. These both make use of liturgical traditions which I find the most helpful for my devotional personality and spirituality. Both come from breviaries. Wikipedia says that a breviary “is is a liturgical book containing the public or canonical prayers, hymns, [...]

[Read more →]

The following was from my original study notes for my sermon on Luke 1:26-38. They did not make it into the sermon, but I thought they might be useful. The majority of this material came from http://www.spirithome.com/angels.html No one needs angels more then pastors: Eugene Peterson in his review of the book The Sermon Maker [...]

[Read more →]

This is a selection of writings by Eberhard Arnold, founder of the Bruderhof communities. The publisher has taken the ebook down from their website, but since they allowed people to redistribute without commercial gain, I’m making it available here. Blessings Technorati Tags: Anabaptist, eberhardarnold, puritan

[Read more →]

Following is the ebook “Provocations” by Soren Kierkegaard. It was previously available online, but the publisher has taken down their site. I believe their copyright allows distribution in this manner. Blessings Technorati Tags: Anabaptist, philosophy

[Read more →]

This is book edited by Eberhard Arnold, the founder of the Bruderhof communities. It includes excerpts from the writings of the first three centuries after the death of the apostles. It includes the full text of the Didache, the Shepherd of Hermas, excerpts from the Early Church Fathers and others, fully annotated. The publisher has [...]

[Read more →]

This is a fabulous book on the sermon on the mount by the founder of the Bruderhof communities. The publisher has taken the ebook down from their website, but since they allowed people to redistribute without commercial gain, I’m making it available here. Blessings Technorati Tags: Anabaptist, bible, bruderhof, eberhardarnold, sermononthemount

[Read more →]