![\"\"](\"https:\/\/faithfamilyfellowship.church\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/flower-46976_1280-174x300.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nA few years back, my wife, Mari, was driving home from a non-profit fundraising banquet. Just before she pulled into our driveway, she spotted \u2013 and smelled \u2013 a dead skunk on our side property. Obviously, it had been the victim of a hit-and-run. Who wouldn\u2019t? \u2013 run, that is. In addition to informing me, she added this most unwelcome request: \u201cTomorrow, would you please remove the carcass so our property doesn\u2019t stink?\u201d \u201cReally?!\u201d My natural instink was to make up any excuse I could fabricate to dodge this unenviable task. Bummer! I came up empty. I couldn\u2019t drum up a single, credible escape clause \u2013 and not that I didn\u2019t try.<\/p>\n
The next morning I had a meeting first thing, so there was no way I was going to risk absorbing some of that odor onto my clothing; I\u2019d wait \u2018til I returned home. But when I passed the little stinker, did I see him move ever so slightly? Upon entering our house, I changed into my grubbiest of grubby jeans, then headed straight for the garage. I grabbed a shovel and our wheelbarrow. Then I courageously set out on my quest to save the environment. Sure enough, as I approached our uninvited squatter, he lifted his pretty little head and stared at me as though challenging, \u201cI dare you to take one more step. You do, and I\u2019ll make one big stink.\u201d I didn\u2019t dare. I went back into the house to tell Mari of the unexpected status change. It took all my persuasive skill to deter her from pulling out her 357 Magnum. Instead, we called the police to resolve our problem \u2013 and his misery.<\/p>\n
So you\u2019re reading this and wondering, \u201cWhat in the world does a near-dead skunk have anything to do with what I could possible preach on this Sunday morning?\u201d Well I encourage you to come out to find out and hear the sermon I\u2019ve entitled, \u201cDead AND Alive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A few years back, my wife, Mari, was driving home from a non-profit fundraising banquet. Just before she pulled into our driveway, she spotted \u2013 and smelled \u2013 a dead skunk on our side property. Obviously, it had been the victim of a hit-and-run. Who wouldn\u2019t? \u2013 run, that is. In addition to informing… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermon-preview"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/faithfamilyfellowship.church\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/skunk-1239764_1280.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithfamilyfellowship.church\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithfamilyfellowship.church\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithfamilyfellowship.church\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfamilyfellowship.church\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfamilyfellowship.church\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5732"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/faithfamilyfellowship.church\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5736,"href":"https:\/\/faithfamilyfellowship.church\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5732\/revisions\/5736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfamilyfellowship.church\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithfamilyfellowship.church\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfamilyfellowship.church\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfamilyfellowship.church\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}