WAY SAY

Dear All of Us, 

What follows is from 

today's journal entry of 

an eight-six year-old, 

follower of Jesus,

husband, father, grandfather, 

pastor, counselor, educator - 

that would be me.

MONDAY JUNE 15, 2026

Definitely a NewNow for me -

a more physically limiting 

and spirit freeing stretch

along this late last expanse of 

the road to Forever.

Can't get out and about much

but what wide my soul!

Much quieter, don’t want 

a lot of buzz and busy, 

spend long stretches

just being - peaceful and serene.

Absorbed in the Eternal Now

in the here and now -

a skyscape, dinner, a picture.

Am joyed by a baby, a flower, 

a hymn, a smile, watching my 

Grand Son come alive.

A calm, gentle, all rightness.

God and me quietly one.

It’s the old grandpa sitting quietly still,

absorbed in the freedom of Being.

 

I see and understand 

so much so simply now.

Three Seeings

that trouble/rejoice 

my heart most of all:

Church, 

    State,    

        Kingdom

 

The Establishment Church 

has compromised the Gospel.

The Establishment Church 

is falling apart and needs to.

Sadly, so many now are ready 

for Spirit Deep Dive and 

The Establishment Church 

offers a puddle of religiosity.

 

My country suffers 

a lot of inner rot and 

it has surfaced in

ugliness, anger, 

selfishness, violence of

word, deed and greed.

It is the plight and peril 

of way many more 

lands and peoples

than just in 

my homeland.

The greed of 

a controlling few

has a vice lock grip on

most of most.

Under their selfish, 

reckless watch 

nature abuse, 

nuclear threat and 

unchecked AI 

may kill off 

God’s gift of 

planet Earth 

    and its 

human inhabitants.

 

So sad much of this rot 

sprawled across the lawn of 

The Peoples’ House

here in Washington, DC.

last night.

It was putrid sin 

in the name of patriotism.

To celebrate Donald Trump’s 

eightieth birthday and 

America’s two hundred and fiftieth, 

Donald Trump hosted 

a birthday brawl on the

south lawn of 

The White House.

It was a mass-media spectacle 

of bloody savagery 

wrapped in a flag.

Cage Fighting.

"A human cock fight" 

as John McCain 

used to call it.

It was an 

outlandishly priced, 

vulgar, trashy 

icon of the condition

into which so many 

have been conned.

  Evil Empire

 

For all of that 

The Kingdom of God 

flourishes gloriously

right here, right now:

so many soul focused on 

The Common Good, 

couples faithful and familied, 

small churches/home churches 

God Love living, 

poets and prophets, 

grandparents' round two,

singles God absorbed 

and community serving, 

mystics in the workplace,

seekers and sharers 

in centers of learning, 

healers of body and mind, 

music makers,

food growers, 

neighbors caring and sharing, 

justice seeker/sayers,

others markedly "other" welcomed, 

left outs invited in, 

workers laboring for family and 

The Family of Us, 

the endowed endowing,

peacemakers patching 

peoples one.

Jesus heard and followed:

    "Change your lives. 

    The Kingdom is here"

       Matthew 4:17

       The Message

      and they have.

They live out a script 

divinely, delightfully, 

different than that of 

deadening Empire,

one joyous, refreshing, 

wholesome, 

"The word of Life":

      "Go out into the world

       uncorrupted,

       a breath of fresh air

       in this squalid 

       and polluted society.

       Provide people with a

       glimpse of good living

       and of God. 

       Carry the life-giving Message 

       into the night..."

            Philippians 2:16a-14b

                The Message

Light Lived in the dark of deadening Empire.

They make personal, practical

and communal that 

"life-giving Message."

   "God is love"

    1John4:8

and they live that love

at home, at work, always.

"Love never gives up.

 Love cares more for others than for self.

 Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.

 Love doesn't strut,

 Doesn't have a swelled head,

 Doesn't force itself on others,

 Isn't always, 'me first,' 

 Doesn't fly off the handle, 

 Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, 

 Doesn't revel when others grovel.

 Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

 Puts up with everything,

 Trusts God always, 

 Always looks for the best,

 Never looks back,

 But keeps going to the end."

     I Corinthians 13:4-7

        The Message

It totally up ends 

Empire's deadening down.

Kingdom people realize 

    - make real -

that exactly how 

we treat others 

is exactly how 

we treat God.

    "Whatsoever you do 

     to others you do 

     unto me." 

       Mathew 25:48

Three Seeings

Church - County - Kingdom.

It’s our version of

“The best of times, 

 the worst of times.”

It’s also the time 

of OUR lives.

Empire is hell bent.

Kingdom is wondrously aborning.

              ******

As Walter Cronkite 

used to say at the end of the 

CBS Evening News,

   "And that’s the way it is,

    June 15, 2026."

       What's our

       WAY SAY?

         ******

        A KING SIZED 

     KINGDON WELCOME

            TO ALL

     ONLINE POSTINGS

                 NOW

    WEDNESDAY EVENINGS

        East Coast USA time

PAST POSTINGS AVAILABLE

   Please scroll well down  

            breath

        this posting.

      See you next week

            We live 

    "Thy Kingdome Come'

       in our right here,

       in our right now.

          Love to all.

          God Bless.

          John Frank

       frankly speaking 

   spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

              ****** 

CYCLE

Dear All of Us,

Remember when 

we first learned 

to ride a bicycle?

It was a definitive

Rite of Passage.

It opened wide a way

different, scary, 

and exciting.

It took daring do

and lots of practice. 

We needed another 

to run alongside,

to coach, encourage 

and steady us. 

It's so similar such as

      The Spirit 

   spins us along

     Soul Way.

Learning our 

spiritual way

takes trust,

openness to the

new and different,

a willingness 

to lean/learn forward,

practice, 

adjustment,

balance,

coordinating

variations

- lots of gear changes.

    There are 

spills and scrapes,

        and

     euphoria 

     aplenty, 

      as we

  cycle forward

- flat on our face 

  to shy high.

We deal will terrains 

different, difficult, 

delightful -

bumpy, twisting, 

flat fast, 

tense tight.

We learn to 

counter correct

frantic fast, lazy slow,

right or left leaning.

We never stay 

in the same space,

rarely at the same speed.

We traverse lush

soulful gardens to 

dry desert wastelands

of spirit

with lots else 

in-between. 

We weather 

warm sun,

drenching downpour,

gusty winds,

placid peacefulness

- it runs hot and cold 

  and we try not to.

The big difference between 

learning to bicycle and 

learning to journey spiritually 

      is that we are 

   forever coached

           and

       supported 

            by 

      The Spirit

not only alongside us 

in soulful, wise elders and

our "Spirit"-ual Communities,

  ("a cloud of witnesses")

         but always 

intimately, deeply within.

It's not over until we are,

Heven Arrived, 

Home Safe.

Between here and there,

now and when it's 

       God Go 

       as we

           SOUL

       CYCLE

      ******

Paul cheers us on.

What he says 

of running 

we apply 

to cycling:

    Do you see what it means -

    all these pioneers who blazed the way,

    all these veterans cheering us on?

    It means we'd better get on with it. 

    Strip down, start running - and never quit!

    No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins.

    Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both

    began and finished the race we're in.

    Study how he did it. Because he never 

    lost sight of where he was headed - 

    that exhilarating finish in and with God - 

    he could put up with anything 

    along the way: Cross, shame, whatever.

    And now he's there, in the place of honor, 

    right alongside God. When you find yourself 

    flagging in your faith, go over the story again,

    item by item, that long litany of hostility

    he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline 

    into your souls!

                         Hebrews 12:1-3

                          The Message

                

                         How about that  

                           as a get go,

                           as a keep going

                              indeed, a

                             way to go, 

                              Soulfully

                               Cycle

                              ******

    

HOMEBOUND 

For those 

who missed it

last week,

here's a lead on a

small, for real 

Country Church

that livestreams its

       Service.

It's a blessing for the 

     homebound.

In weeks to come two other

very different and excellent

churches will be highlighted here.

                  

        Free Union Vienna Church

     This is a delightful, small, 

           country church

    located in the rolling hills of 

      beautiful NW New Jersey.

 Their 10:00 AM Sunday Service

       (East Coast USA time)

          is livestreamed.

           Just GOOGLE 

Free Union Vienna UMC Facebook

       Delete the X top right.

 

   There is an ease and warmth

   about this friendly community.

      The Sharing of the Peace 

         is mobile, vigorous 

         and takes a while.

         The hymns are both

         old time and 

         contemporary  

         favorites.

         Creative videos 

         are woven into 

         prayer and sermon. 

         Anthony's preaching 

         is conversational

         in manner,  

         soundly scriptural,

         deeply spiritual,

         and is interspersed 

         with references 

         to contemporary 

         media and music

         Oh, yes! 

         Be advised 

         Anthony 

         goes big for

         The Boss

   - Bruce Springsteen -

               :)

         

        This is neither 

         a traditional

         high church 

             nor a

         manicured 

         and polished

         big church.

        

      This is good church

       up close and real.

                    ******

                  

It's Spring in The States.

Lot's of warm freshness

here in Washington, DC.

Such is our welcome to all 

joining with us recently from

around our global village.

Great to cycle forth together.

ONLINE POSTINGS

Thursday mornings

East Coast USA time.

A sampling of 

past postings

is available 

by scrolling

well down 

  beneath

this posting.

See you next week.

Love to all.

God Bless,

John Frank

         frankly speaking

   spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

              ******

 

GATHERED

Dear All of Us,

It ran from being puzzled

to being plain old ticked off.

As pastor, I just couldn't figure

those visitors who would show up 

at a Sunday Service 

and bluntly tell me 

they were church shopping.

"Say what??"

Were they bargain hunting,

looking for a discounted 

spiritual special??

Did they have a fistful 

of churchy coupons?

"Come on already!"

Was this "Me-ism" on the margins 

of unabashed, vulgar, self-indulgence?

Or was there some merit to this mystery,

something that would ring true and good? 

                  Then I retired.

                        YEP 

            I went church shopping.

How naive I'd been.

Guess I just assumed 

most churches were like 

the good ones 

I was blessed to pastor.

I found out that 

there were lots of 

 "places of worship" 

that weren't even within 

a country mile of being a 

     "The People of God",

     "The Body of Christ",

     "Fallowers of the Way."

Sadly, they were mostly clubby, 

feel good gatherings 

with a cross on top.

Often those crosses tended to tip 

far right or far left, 

not straight up heavenward.

More and more such "places"

are emptying out these days. 

There's an 

            Exodus

               of 

             Souls

trying to find their way to a 

        Promised Land

       flowing with real

           spiritual 

       milk and honey.

To switch metaphors, 

it's too often like 

an orphan train 

with nowhere to go. 

On that same train are 

another group of spiritual orphans.

They have outgrown a lot of

superficial, self-centered living. 

They crave the real deep deal 

in spiritual life and community.

These orphans never were part of 

those "places" of supposed worship.

And they aren't about to start.

These seeking souls can see right thru

the vacuous spiritual nothingness

of such soulless "places".

It's a no go.

And they don't go.

But where can they go?

Well, in my continued 

shopping around 

after retirement, 

I found that 

there are indeed 

wonderful, for real 

spiritual communities -

not perfect,

but discernably, 

genuinely good 

and real.

In them there's 

room and 

welcome for all.

They come in 

all sizes and shapes, 

in all sorts of places.

Some are denominational, 

others free standing.

For all the variety, 

the members 

care for each other and 

for people and needs 

beyond themselves.

Thy pray in many modes, 

but pray the do.

The community core is Gospel, 

read, preached and lived. 

The Sermon On The Mount

         - ALL OF IT - 

                is 

faced, normative and experienced.

It's a work in progress, moving

progressively more than perfectly.

Early on as the Church took form

             it was called

              "ECCLESIA"

                Latin for

           "THE GATHERED"

      Kingdom living never was 

          nor can ever be a 

          solo flight to heaven.

              Gathered

                  in 

               Christ

               we are.

Our gathering is 

foundational and essential.

So, we find or found 

 a genuine Christ Gathering.

We find an ecclesia - 

   "By their fruits 

    you will know them." 

     Matthew 7:15-20

If such gathers 

where we live,

we sure do 

"Gather In."

If there are no such 

where we are, 

we found one.

It doesn't need to be 

large or highly structured.

  "Where two or three are 

         gathered 

        in my name,

    I am in their midst."

       Matthew 18:20

For those of us 

who are homebound, 

as I now am, 

there are 

wonderful and welcoming 

churches that livestream. 

In the near term three such,

quite different in tone and manner,

will be highlighted here. 

The first is happily highlighted below.

      GATHERED 

       we are the 

     Body of Christ

"The way God 

designed our bodies 

is a model 

for understanding 

our lives together 

as a church: 

every part dependent 

on every other part...

If one parts hurts, 

every other part 

is involved in the hurt, 

and in the healing. 

If one-part flourishes, 

every other part 

enters into the exuberance, 

You are Christ's body - 

that's who you are!

       Please see 

1 Corinthians 12: 12-27

         The Message

        

We Are the Church

I am the church!

You are the church!

We are the church together!

All who follow Jeus, 

all around the world!

Yes, we are the church together!

United Methodist Hymnal # 558

In the Love That is God 

  we are wondrously

     GATHERED

      ******

       

       A CHURCH HIGHLIGHT

           Free Union Vienna 

      United Methodist Church

         Great Meadows, NJ

                  USA

         Pastor Anthony Pami

       Please see their webpage.

       The Sunday Service 

       is live streamed on

       the Church's Facebook page.

       If you do not use Facebook,

       simply cancel out the "X" 

       at the of the page 

       and scroll down.

       

       For those of us in other 

       places and time zones

       around our global village,

         The Sunday Service 

       is recorded and available

        on their Facebook page.

      

        Free Union Vienna Church

     This is a delightful, small, 

           country church

    located in the rolling hills of 

      beautiful NW New Jersey.

   There is an ease and warmth

   about this friendly community.

      The Sharing of the Peace 

         is mobile, vigorous 

         and takes a while.

         The hymns are both

         old time and 

         contemporary  

         favorites.

         Creative videos 

         are woven into 

         prayer and sermon. 

         Anthony's preaching 

         is conversational

         in manner,  

         soundly scriptural,

         deeply spiritual,

         and is interspersed 

         with references 

         to contemporary 

         media and music

         Oh, yes! 

         Be advised 

         Anthony 

         goes big for

         The Boss

   - Bruce Springsteen -

               :)

         

        This is neither 

         a traditional

         high church 

             nor a

         manicured 

         and polished

         big church.

        

      This is good church

       up close and real.

                    ******

             WELCOME 

       What a blessing to be 

             GATHERED 

             

        ONLINE POSTINGS

        Thursday mornings

       East Coast USA time

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           Many of us 

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         frankly speaking

       Many much thanks!

       See you in seven.

          Love to all. 

          God Bless,

         John Frank

                frankly speaking

            spirituality for the street

         johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

        

            

FALL UP

 Dear All of Us,

    My little 

  Grand Son

     Ollie 

just turned five.

His best buddy 

at school is 

   Patrick.

They're tight.

The other day 

Ollie whispered 

to his Mom:

"Mommy, Patrick 

broke his toe.

He has to ware

this boot thing.

We were having 

a race today and

I fell down 

on purpose 

so Patrick 

could win 

the race." 

     Talk about taking a 

              FALL

      for the other guy!

In Ollie's whisper

I hear an echo of Jesus:

"Do unto others 

 as you would have them 

 do unto you."

          Luke 6:2

Love your neighbor 

as yourself."

          Matthew 22:39

"Whatever you do to 

 the least of these

you do unto me."

           Mathew 25:40&45

Without all that much

understanding it 

in his head yet, 

Ollie has a 

good start on 

his spiritual life

in his heart

     and 

in his caring.

SIDEBAR:

              When he was 

               a wee, little one

              Grandpa me, 

              got to baptize Ollie 

                   into the

              God Goodness

              that is now showing

              in his care and serving.

              His Baptism was 

              my last official act 

              as a pastor of these

              fifty-eight years.

              What a finale.

                   Pure joy!

                   

 As I pray Olie 

will one day see,

our spiritual lives are

are powered by the 

twin dynamos of

prayer and service.

Immersed in 

God's Love 

we live it in 

  Service

A good portion 

of that service means 

"Taking a fall for 

the other guy/gal."

        It's a

     Sacrifice 

         of 

     Service

    that gets 

  the down up.

What might seem 

a giver's loss

turns out to be 

an up for both

giver and receiver.

     

        As giver

        we take a fall,

        we take a hit, 

        we take a loss.

        We're living the 

         down death 

              the

     uplift resurrection 

              of 

     Jesus The Christ

      Romans 6:3-5

 

The dynamic flows 

from intimacy to service.

In prayer we get lost in 

     the goodness, 

     the realness, 

     the energy,

     the dynamic,

     the Love,

     The Mystery

     that is God.

     We are filled 

     to abundance 

          with

      God Good.

   It powers us to 

       Fall In

   with the down

   for their uplift. 

Prayer and service.

      Fall Up

Yes, we are living into 

the very life of Jesus.

"I live now not I, 

but Christ lives in me."

     Galatians 2:20

Jesus spent many 

a night and more 

in prayer.

He was wrapped tight 

with his Abba.

It was Love Intense.

It propelled him 

into redeeming,

life giving service.

By day he preached 

hope and a liberating 

Kingdom Life 

to multitudes.

They were living under 

the oppressive thumb 

of the occupying

and cruel 

Roman Empire.

Most were impoverished.

The religious leaders 

counted them 

as of no account.(1)

Jesus fell right in 

with them. 

Jesus brought 

healing and vigor 

to the sick 

and destitute.

He was a frequent 

at table with

"the wrong kind 

 of people,"

sharing fellowship, 

food and wine

and I'll bet 

more than 

a few good, 

belly laughs.

For all that 

he got into 

good trouble 

with the 

religious 

professionals.

He did all this in 

caring and hopeful 

closeness.

       He shared

who and what he was, 

"The way, the truth the life" 

         John 14:16

          FALL UP

We live this

  Fall Up

right where 

and as we are.

We get married and 

generously lose

a lot of our

independence

and preferences

for the lift 

of our union.  

   FALL UP

We have kids 

and loose 

a lot of sleep, 

free ranging,

money,

for their uplift.

  FALL UP

We're single,

solid and giving 

with those 

needing our

Sacrifice Service.

We literally, 

actually, 

live 

The Sermon 

On The Mount.

It means deep union 

with God 

and the needful 

that presence him

to us. 

In service 

we take those

hits, 

falls, 

losses of

privilege and perks

for the benefit 

of the needy

      and 

 surprisingly, 

    ours!

   FALL UP

We come 

to the awareness 

that God has indeed 

filled us with 

His Goodness 

empowerig us

to fill in social pot holds,

to free up the downed,

to cover the vulnerable,

to mingle in 

supportive acceptance,

to advocate 

for social and planet justice,

to share our means, 

to align with the "put off's,"

to include the lonely

and "left out's."

Our model and 

inspiration is 

   Jesus

What a hit,

what a fall,

what a loss, 

he took for us.

What a lift

what a resurrection

for him and for us his 

          FALL 

           UP

The wondrous paradox 

of it all is that in

taking a fall in

Kingdom Service,

    like Ollie,

    we all

  FALL UP

  ******

(1) Jesus Before Christianity

     Albert Nolan

     Orbis Books

     Chapter 3

     The whole book is a

     formidable and 

     extraordinarily 

     enlightening read.

              WELCOME
    
               ALL

         So good to be 

         here together.

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        Every blessing.

         Love to all.

         God Bless,

        John Frank

        frankly speaking

   spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

              ******