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…
Category: A Faith in Process
Notes from the Journey
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…
Bread
Give us today our daily bread.Matthew 6:11 New International Version (NIV) Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. John 6:35a New Living Translation (NLT) And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this…
Right Where He Wants Us
Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to…