Psalm 50 and Paul in Hebrews 13:15 speak of offering God a sacrifice of praise (“Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.”), but what does that mean? How can praising God be a sacrifice? Isn’t it a joy and […]
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NaNoWriMo 2018 is done. I now have 52,501 words as the basis for book eight of my Dancing through Life series. It’s a wonder to me that I made it, as ill-prepared as I was going into the month. There’s something about having a public goal and knowing so many other writers have that same […]
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Who is the prudent one? What does it mean to be prudent? Psalm 49 gives us a clue. In canon law studies, the question was always, what would the prudent man do? To be prudent, according to Webster, is to be shrewd in management of practical affairs, to be cautious, discreet, judicious, foresighted, sensible and […]
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“Next year in Jerusalem!” So ends the Jewish Seder meal. Pilgrimages to the holy city of Jerusalem were an important part of the Jewish faith in Old Testament times. There was only one Temple, the Temple in Jerusalem, David’s city. The journey was meant to give pilgrims plenty of time to reflect on God; the […]
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Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we pray “thy kingdom come,” often sliding over the words without pausing to understand what the words mean. Jesus proclaimed that the kingdom of God was near. He compared the kingdom to a mustard seed (Mt. 13:31), yeast (13:33), a treasure (13:44), a pearl of great price (13:45-46), […]
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In a world full of noise and activity, Psalm 46 reminds us of the importance a being still and listening to our God. Our Noisy World In his book, The ScrewTape Letters, C.S. Lewis has the devil, ScrewTape, giving instructions to his disciple, Wormwood, on how to lead humans astray. When Wormwood comes up with […]
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One of Jackson County Michigan’s claims to fame is that it is the birthplace of the Republican Party. (There is some dispute over this with Ripon, Wisconsin. Click here to learn more.) Another but lesser known claim to fame is its role in the Underground Railroad. The two are related, as I learned through my […]
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Psalm 45 was written for a royal wedding. We love royal weddings, don’t we? For that matter, as a society we seem to be in love with weddings, rivaling the royal wedding with expenditures and extravagances to make that day “special”–as if wanting to commit your lives to each other wasn’t special enough. But for […]
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It’s NaNoWriMo time! Time to sharpen those pencils if you are old-school, or prepare to hit that keyboard to write 50,000 words in one month. Earlier this week I wrote about the reasons why I love November in my post, Season of Gratitude. To those reasons I add NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. Past […]
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Remember those days of waiting in the school gym to be picked for dodgeball? Maybe you weren’t the last one left standing. Maybe you were second to last. Or maybe you were the first one chosen each time, leaving the rest of us peons to wallow in our jealousy! Most of us know the pain […]
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