The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles. Psalm 34:17 (NLT) Speaking of deteriorating houses: Last month, I found a wet spot on the ceiling. My upstairs neighbor’s sink was leaking. The plumber came: all fixed. All good. We thought. As I waited for the insurance claim to…
Category: A Faith in Process
Notes from the Journey
House …
A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life: he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days. Ralph Waldo Emerson I take great pleasure in housekeeping. Cleaning, tidying and organizing touch something deep inside me. I’ve taken gentle…
Happy Birthday, America!
It seems strange to be celebrating without picnics, parades, concerts, carnivals, fireworks or baseball. Yet in the middle of this calamitous time, with a global pandemic, polarizing politics, a reeling economy and rampant racism, a recent experience has given me hope for our country. From February to mid-May, I participated in the American legal system…
Stealthy Felines
I wake to see my bedroom door opening. After a moment, Zoey enters. The clock says 3 AM. A couple of years ago, Zoey taught herself how to open our doors. She sat and studied the lever-style handles for days, then stood on her hind legs, hooked a paw and pulled. She was so proud…
Halfway
July 2 is halfway through 2020. And what a year so far! Psalm 118, a Hallel Psalm, is halfway through the Bible, right between the longest (Psalm 119) and the shortest (Psalm 117) chapters. Maybe at this halfway point, we should take a look at that halfway point. (NOTE: I edited this Psalm for length….
Praise Him! Hallelujah!
How else can one respond to such a great God?
Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Literally it means “Praise the Lord.” It opens ten of the Psalms (106,111-113,135,146-150), which are called “hallelujah psalms.” The first half of the word, from the verb hillel, means to praise, and it is used hundreds of times in the Bible. Praise what? Praise “jah.” “Jah” is a shortened form of the 4-letter Hebrew name for the…
Glory!
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” Isaiah 6: 1-3 New International Version (NIV) “The whole earth is full of His glory.” I pause at those words on a gray, rainy day, the kind of day I rarely associate with glory. Yet that is what the angels are continuously singing before the…
Funny Food?
More Than Enough Bread
For years we attended a church where the Breaking of Bread service was the main gathering of the week. Every Sunday, after a time of singing and testimony, communion was celebrated with a loaf of homemade yeast bread. The loaf, broken in half, was passed through the pews. Each participant pinched off a small piece…