Author: Pam R

God never intended for us to simply be the objects of His love. We are also called to be the instruments of that love in the lives of others. Paul David Tripp ***  Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for…

As I was researching St. Francis’s Peace Prayer songs last week, I rejected any that had “channel” instead of “instrument” in the lyrics. Instrument just seemed more authentic. Strange, then, that the “channel” tunes are the ones that running through my head. I wondered about those two words. A channel is a passageway, a means of access…

October 4 is the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi. Indulged as a child, rebellious as a youth, he joined the military looking for glory, was captured and held for ransom as a prisoner of war. Then he met Jesus. Francis began living a life of extreme poverty, penance, and simplicity, dedicating himself to…

Walter Rauschenbusch, author of Monday’s poem, was born October 4, 1861, in Rochester, New York, to a Lutheran-missionary-turned-German-Baptist. In 1885 he became pastor of the Second German Baptist Church in New York City, located at the edge of a depressed area known as Hell’s Kitchen. Here the young pastor confronted unemployment, poverty, malnutrition, disease, and…

Rosh Hashanah, literally “the Head of the Year,” begins at sundown on Wednesday, October 2 and ends at sundown on Friday, October 4, the only Jewish holiday which lasts for two entire days (considered as one very long day). It ushers in the ten “Days of Awe,” a time to reflect on the previous year and focus…

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord    and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.Jeremiah 17:7 NLT *** President Jimmy Carter turns 100 years old today. He has survived metastatic brain cancer, liver cancer and a number of health scares, including brain surgery after a fall in 2019. He entered hospice care in February 2023 yet keeps going.  Whatever…

God, we thank You for this earth, our home; for the wide sky and the blessed sun, for the salt sea and the running water, for the everlasting hills and the never resting winds, for trees and the common grass underfoot. We thank You for our senses by which we hear the songs of birds,…

Let the heavens be glad, and the earth rejoice!Tell all the nations, “The Lord reigns!”1 Chronicles 16:31 NLT *** *** God is serious business, take him seriously;    he’s put the earth in place and it’s not moving.So let Heaven rejoice, let Earth be jubilant,    and pass the word among the nations, “God reigns!”Let Ocean, all teeming with life, bellow,    let Field…

*** The aster has not wasted spring and summer because it has not blossomed. It has been all the time preparing for what is to follow, and in autumn it is the glory of the field, and only the frost lays it low. So there are many people who must live forty or fifty years,…