What’s in a name? Shakespeare tell us, “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” The author of Psalm 20 would beg to differ with this statement. Psalm 20 The psalm for this week, Psalm 20, is a royal psalm (other royal psalms include 2, 28, 45, 72, 101, 132, 144). The format […]
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The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork! (1) We, here in Michigan, are finally getting some days of sunshine and the promise of spring after late April snowstorms. While sunshine is not absent the majority of days, we are not a sunshine state. And so, we appreciate those days […]
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“Don’t tell God how big your storm is, tell the storm how big your God is,” my friend, Marcy Keefe-Slager, once said. And well she knew about storms in her life. She survived breast cancer only to die from lung cancer many years later. Here in Michigan, we have been hit by some late winter […]
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“Keep me as the apple of the eye,” our psalmist asks God today. It is a beautiful prayer for protection, calling upon God to save the writer from evil, slanderous men who had brought charges against him in court. The writer has taken refuge in the temple and calls upon God to protect him. It […]
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Psalm 16 is a psalm of confident, quiet trust in God. After all of the big events of Holy Week and Easter, it’s nice to have some time for quiet reflection. Psalm 16 invites us to do this. The writer entrusts his life to God, “Preserve me, O God, for in thee I take refuge […]
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Happiness, the pursuit of happiness, is an American ideal. Everyone has the right to pursue his/her happiness, but what does that mean? What is happiness and how do we find it? Happiness according to Webster Webster says that happiness is a state of well-being and contentment. It’s not a state of ecstatic, frenzied delight, but […]
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“Lord, what fools these mortals be!” Puck, Shakespeare’s Midsummer’s Night Dream, Act. III, Sc. II What fools indeed! We think ourselves wise, when we are not. We think we don’t need God, that God is the invention of feeble minds. A fool, according to Webster, is a person who lacks sense or judgment: a jester, […]
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How long, Lord? How long, indeed. God sure takes his time! “You are never late for yoga class,” my instructor used to say. “Whenever you arrive, you are just in time.” I was reminded of this while reflecting on Psalm 13. How long, the Psalmist cries out. God is taking his time to respond to […]
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Words, words, words. We are awash in political rhetoric, lies, slanders, half-truths. The air is full of empty words – words with no meaning, no action to back them up. It’s hard to know who or what to believe as it seems there is no-one who speaks the truth amidst the barrage. This situation is […]
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Have you ever wanted to fly away, get away from all of your problems or hide where no-one can find you? I know I have. As a single mother when I was raising three small children I would dream of running away to some place where I could sleep non-stop. Hiding can seem like an […]
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