{"id":100426,"date":"2026-11-03T08:56:35","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T13:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?p=100426"},"modified":"2026-11-03T08:56:36","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T13:56:36","slug":"the-deacons-bench-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-2__trashed-2-2-2-2-2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?p=100426","title":{"rendered":"From the Deacon’s Bench"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Clay Collins<\/a>, Guest Columnist<\/em><\/strong>
207 837-0564<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThen the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, \u2018Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully and you do not care about anyone\u2019s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay to Caesar, or not?\u2019 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, \u201cWhy put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.\u2019 And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, \u2018Whose likeness and inscription is this?\u2019 They said, \u2018Caesar\u2019s.\u2019 Then he said to them, \u2018Therefore render to\u00a0 Caesar the things that are Caesar\u2019s, and to God the things that are God\u2019s.\u2019\u2019\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/strong>Matthew 22:15-22<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It is that time of year when most people turn to fall activities such as raking leaves, preparing your snow equipment upcoming storms. What to do first? Do what most people do: flip a coin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every time we face difficult decisions or tasks we don’t necessarily want to do, What to do? We flip a coin. Either literally or figuratively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hopefully, we do the right thing. The Pharisees tried tricking Jesus into saying they should worship Caesar instead of God. Jesus was aware of their malice. Instead, he took a coin and told them to give Caesar what is Caesar\u2019s and God what is God\u2019s. As you move toward the holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas), be careful and always remember your elderly friends and neighbors. Check on them regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until the next time, remember, \u201cBe well, do good work, and keep in touch.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benediction:\u00a0Gracious and patient Father of us all, help us to always make the correct decision, and forgive us for making the wrong decision.\u00a0\u00a0Amen.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thought for the month:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.\u201d (Aristotle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While Chaplain Christine is burdened with technology challenges, she has invited Past MSG Chaplain Clay to share some spiritual thoughts with our Grange Flock. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Clay Collins, Guest Columnist207 837-0564 \u201cThen the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, \u2018Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully and you do not care about anyone\u2019s opinion, for you … Continue reading “From the Deacon’s Bench”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[115,394],"tags":[690,206,25],"post_folder":[704],"class_list":["post-100426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chaplain","category-guest-articles","tag-friends","tag-grange-advocacy","tag-grange-heritage"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Walter Boomsma","author_link":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?author=2122"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Clay Collins, Guest Columnist207 837-0564 \u201cThen the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, \u2018Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully and you do not care about anyone\u2019s opinion, for you…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1arC1-q7M","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100426"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100427,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100426\/revisions\/100427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100426"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_folder&post=100426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}