Rejoicing to See the Grace of God
June 11 is the day set aside in the church calendar to honor Barnabas, one who had experienced the grace of God in his own life and rejoiced to see God’s grace in the lives of others.
Whimsical Art
For a great dose of whimsical art head on over to this post by Mitch Teemley: Whimsical Art
Three Impactful Books
The three books that have had the most impact on me are the Holy Bible, the Lutheran Worship hymnal and the novel The Life of Pi. The Bible is God’s Word. I do not need some scholar to tell me this, the Bible itself convinces me that it is God’s Word. Do not debate with…
Rise and Enter the City, and You Will Be Told What To Do
It is hard to imagine how the course of Christianity would have been different if Jesus had not appeared to a man named Saul as he was traveling from Jerusalem to Damascus to find and persecute Christians. After Jesus appeared to Saul, who was later renamed Paul, Saul changed from being a persecutor of Christians…
Exercise Anyone?
The thing that most consistently brings joy to my life is exercise. That being said, there are still plenty of times I need to motivate myself to get moving. But when I do so, I’m almost always glad that I did.
Thomas Hart Benton Home
Some artists are so alike it can be hard to recognize their work or their work can be mistaken for that of other artists. Such is not the case with Thomas Hart Benton, an artist whose work is so unique it’s almost impossible to confuse him with other artists. I had the opportunity to visit…
Buried Curses
You are cursed by the god yhw, cursed. You will die, cursed – cursed, you will surely die. Cursed you are by yhw – cursed. These are the words found on a lead tablet that was recently discovered in a pile of discarded archaeological material on Mount Ebal in the land of Israel. The tablet was so fragile that scientists had to use…
Creatures of Habit
It used to be that people who were religious were rather uppity and people didn’t care for that. Now it seems to me that people who say they are spiritual but not religious are the uppity ones. Humans are creatures of habit. Although the voices of anarchy are growing louder these days, no one truly…
Before the Internet
Before the internet it was easier to ignore our sinfulness. Now that we have the internet we simply can’t ignore the fact that we are all sinners. But the good news is that God still loves us: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”…
Contextualization
Years ago I took an aptitude test and found out I am good at something I wasn’t even aware of; contextualization. This is the ability to see how things fit together, to put things into their proper context. When something happens and you wonder where it came from just ask a contextualizer. We can explain…
Mirror Neurons 