Places 23: Tall Before Me
Note: I had fun with this one. I’m not sure how inspired it is— the content is quite serious but the words came so quickly that I forgot about the “writer” in me who struggles and searches for the perfect word and just enjoyed the flow of verses moving from my head to the paper. One line […]
Because of Jesus (With a List of Words to Describe His Life in Believers)
After His crucifixion and death, Jesus of Nazareth was the first human being to wake up from physical death, fully alive, fully human and Himself, but transformed into a new kind of spiritual body. This caused a paradigm shift on the entire timebound planet. It is impossible to list all the changes this has made […]
Your Today
Take time to thank and praise the Lord today. Do it until you feel HIS Holy Spirit welling up inside. Do it through tears if you must, in pain if it’s there, through your busy thoughts, until they are stilled and through your work until you know His work from your own. Take time TODAY […]
Who is Jesus and Why was He Crucified?
Who is Jesus and Why was He Crucified? His mind was unquestionably brilliant. He confounded every scholar who questioned Him. His emotions were pure, untarnished by rebellion, pride, jealousy or greed. All of His actions were completely motivated by compassionate love and truth. Not one trace of selfish desire for personal fulfillment marred His concern […]
Beauty
Beauty I’ve been seeking beauty lately, thinking about it, writing about it, appreciating it and longing for more of it. Winter has grown dull. Fall’s tawny golden grasses and rich browns are faded, dull and washed out. The landscape is drab. Fortunately, all this outside monotony has been has been interrupted by unexpected surprises —fire […]
Places 20: That Day
Was nature still? Or did winds stir? Did leaves whisper or branches rub to sigh? Were there grasses high enough to bend and sway, to worship their Creator upon that Holy Day? What sounds surrounded Him? Did footsteps on the road near-by slow down to plod, trod and tread in quiet fear and dread? Could […]
Places 19: Impaled
Note: Impaled reminds me that over forty years ago, I heard a Middle Eastern man tell how, while still young boy, maybe 12 or 13, he saw Jesus hanging on the cross. He said that he was, in vision, actually taken to Golgotha. While he watched Jesus’ crucifixion, the Lord looked at him. He was instantly […]
Places 18: Silent Witness
Have you ever wondered what Jesus “will” was a on the night He sweat great drops of blood and cried out, “Not my will, but Yours be done?” This reflection and poem is about the olive trees silent witness to Jesus’ agony that night. Did they hear what He was praying about?
Places 17: Gethsemane
In the fun of colored eggs and family and all the beauty of the lilies and the “Hallelujahs” of Easter, I can focus so fully on the joyous triumph of “He is Risen” that the fullness of why Jesus denied Himself and choose His Father’s will—even death on a cross— falls in the background. Revising […]
Self-Realization
Who am I? What defines my self? My family or friendships? My activities, like writing or painting? My thoughts, feelings, or body? Do psychological tests reveal my real self and give me clear life directions? Or will externals like economics, circumstances like Covid-19 or realities like aging define me? How do I find my true identity […]
Places 15: Waiting for Wind
Note: Here are two poems. The 2011 poem describes summer heat. The 2021 version is a work in progress. Inner impressions that surfaced while reading Carl Trueman’s The Life of the Mind slipped in. Trueman says our culture elevates immanence (materialism), unbelief, and the importance of our inner individual feelings and physical desires over external authorities like […]
Thin Grass
Thin grass, in a stingy icing of soil, covers rocks and clay. Crops raise little but hopes deferred. Yet somehow, with good rains
more clover comes, the weeds survive, green enough to keep alive all who call these hilly pastures home.
