{"id":97948,"date":"2025-11-18T05:06:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T10:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?p=97948"},"modified":"2025-11-16T17:09:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T22:09:27","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","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?p=97948","title":{"rendered":"From the Deacon’s Bench – Friends!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Clay Collins<\/a>, Guest Columnist<\/em><\/strong>
207 837-0564<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAnd He saith unto them, \u2018Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?\u2019 Then He arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.\u201d\u00a0.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\u00a0 Matthew 9:26<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Friends! Have you ever taken the time to determine just who your friends really are? Who are your rainy-day friends? Who are your casual friends? Who are your good friends? The ones who are there for you when you need them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are just a few questions to help you put your friends into the right perspective. Not all friends are alike! There are friends from work or school who are more casual acquaintances than friends. There are those friends who would drop everything and come running (literally) if you should need help of any kind. Then there are those friends who will stick by you when all of the other friends have long gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We must cherish all of our friends, as they each have a purpose in our lives. God would not have given us the friends that we have if there were not a purpose to it. It has been said that friends are like a fine wine; both add comfort to a significant situation. For if it weren\u2019t for good friends, how would we be able to cope with our day-to-day lives?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friends are a gift from God that we cannot overlook. I am thankful every day for all of my dear friends, for without them, I could not appreciate the true gifts from God. Thank you one and all for being my very dear friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until the next time, remember, \u201cBe well, do good work, and keep in touch\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benediction:<\/strong> Our Father, thank you for our friends for without them, life would not be worth living. Help us to realize that our friends are really a true and loving gift from You. We give our thanks in Thy holy name. Amen.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cLife has many gifts – take time to unwrap them all!\u201d<\/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 \u201cAnd He saith unto them, \u2018Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?\u2019 Then He arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.\u201d\u00a0.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Matthew 9:26 Friends! Have you ever taken the time to determine just who your friends really are? Who … Continue reading “From the Deacon’s Bench – Friends!”<\/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_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[115,394],"tags":[690,206,25],"post_folder":[505],"class_list":["post-97948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chaplain","category-guest-articles","tag-friends","tag-grange-advocacy","tag-grange-heritage"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","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 \u201cAnd He saith unto them, \u2018Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?\u2019 Then He arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.\u201d\u00a0.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Matthew 9:26 Friends! Have you ever taken the time to determine just who your friends really are? Who…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1arC1-ptO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97948","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=97948"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97952,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97948\/revisions\/97952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97948"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_folder&post=97948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}