{"id":99386,"date":"2026-05-11T17:00:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T21:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?p=99386"},"modified":"2026-05-11T17:00:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T21:00:28","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","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?p=99386","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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Jesus said, \u201cIf you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0 <\/strong>John 14:15-17<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Another month has gone by, and I am back behind the computer trying to write a thoughtful, respectful, and inspiring article that will make you want to go out and do good for your fellow human beings. Well, here goes nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we are told in this month\u2019s bible verse, and I paraphrase here, \u201cif you love Jesus, you will keep His commandments, and He will ask the Father to welcome you into the kingdom of heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not hard at all. You probably are doing this right now and not realizing it. Maybe you held a door open for an elderly person or helped someone up after they had fallen. No matter what it was, you were keeping a commandment of the Lord. Another view of this is when you helped a student with their studies. These are just a few examples of how we all can keep Jesus\u2019 commandments. When you do, doesn\u2019t it make you feel a little bit better? It does me!<\/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> “Heavenly Father, help us to remember that keeping your commandments is the only way to be admitted to your kingdom.\u00a0\u00a0 Amen.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cGod is good but never dance in a small boat.\u201d [Irish Blessing]<\/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 Jesus said, \u201cIf you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know … 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_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-99386","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 Jesus said, \u201cIf you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1arC1-pR0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99386","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=99386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99388,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99386\/revisions\/99388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99386"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_folder&post=99386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}