{"id":98107,"date":"2026-01-11T07:29:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T12:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?p=98107"},"modified":"2026-01-11T07:29:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T12:29:29","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","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?p=98107","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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“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0 Matthew 5:<\/strong>4<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Happy New Year to one and all! I hope you had a very nice and rewarding Christmas season. Please remember that the season just doesn\u2019t end on the sixth of January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lord God did not want us to just worship Jesus\u2019 birth; He wanted us to carry the feeling of love into the world every day. He wanted us to help the downtrodden. By helping those who are mourning, you will be helping yourselves.<\/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:<\/strong> “Gracious Father, help us to be better people. Teach us to learn how to help those who are sad and mourning. Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

“May good luck be your friend in whatever you do, and may trouble be always a stranger to you.”<\/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 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” \u00a0 Matthew 5:4 Happy New Year to one and all! I hope you had a very nice and rewarding Christmas season. Please remember that the season just doesn\u2019t end on the sixth of January. The Lord God did not … 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-98107","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 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” \u00a0 Matthew 5:4 Happy New Year to one and all! I hope you had a very nice and rewarding Christmas season. Please remember that the season just doesn\u2019t end on the sixth of January. The Lord God did not…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1arC1-pwn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98107","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=98107"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98109,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98107\/revisions\/98109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98107"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_folder&post=98107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}