Author: Randy Buchman

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Snakes for Christmas

A regular feature of my old blog was the inclusion of snake stories. There seem to be no shortages in the world of news accounts of snakes being in the most unlikely and distasteful of places.

I am surely not alone in my aversion to these most dreadful of creatures. I’ll use a separate posting at another time to explain my problem with snakes, but suffice it to simply state here two indisputable truths about slithering serpents – one logical and one theological:

Logical – there is nothing positive about a snake. Don’t tell me there are good snakes! Every last one of them will bite you given the opportunity.

Theological – oh, who could it be that chose a snake to incarnate?… Oh, hmmm, who could it be? Could it be….. SATAN?!?!?

I never understood why getting a lump of coal in one’s stocking was such a bad thing at Christmas … especially now that I heat with a coal stove. No, coal is good! If you really want to zap your kid at Christmas, put a snake in his stocking! Even Jesus thought that this would be THE mega-zappo! “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone. Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?” (Matthew 7:9-10). There you have it; case closed!

OK, so here’s the Christmas snake story – A family in North Carolina set up their freshly cut tree in the house, and even decorated it … but then noticed one of the colorful sort of candy cane ornaments was moving! Ugh! I always thought artificial trees were a bit wimpy… but now, I see that they are a sign of wisdom and prudence and safety!

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The Word of Randy – new blog

Hi there everyone! And welcome to my newest blog – The Word of Randy.

I know that it sounds a bit … ah … over the top?? A bit too grandiose? Yep, I agree. But it was the best I could come up with. Actually, I had quite a number of other more mundane sounding names about simple concepts of writing and communicating … but all those names were taken!

Actually, I’ve been blogging for quite a few years – first of all on my church web page, and then, as a sort of sports writing blog focused on the Baltimore Orioles.

I am the Lead Pastor of a church in Hagerstown, Maryland called Tri-State Fellowship. The majority of my postings will be written from this perspective and with that in mind. For those who might read this from outside this church family, Tri-State Fellowship in a congregation of about 500-some attenders on a Sunday – affiliated with the Evangelical Free Church of America denomination.

Some posts will be only sensible by knowing some inside details about the church and its people and programs. Others will be of general interest and value to any from a Christian perspective. And more than a few will be just plain goofy and done for the fun of it.

As I write this in mid December of 2011, I anticipate my church to have a serious web page upgrade in January. This is really overdue and has been in progress for a while. Our current page is now rather ancient looking, but has lots of church information … it can be found at http://www.tristatefellowship.org.

The truth of the matter is that I’d probably rather write than do just about anything in life. I’ve often said that my blog is a place to put all my extra words (and opinions – of which I’ve many!).

A blog is a conversation … and yes, this format on WordPress makes it possible for you to easily communicate back with me – and I welcome that! Think of the blog as a way we can sit on the front porch of life, watch the world going by, and talk about it as friends.