Apprentice 2 Jesus

Just grieve

Another mass shooting. Children’s lives lost. A community that is in mourning.

Lord, we pray for those who have been devastated by this recent tragedy. We remember those who have lost their lives so suddenly. We hold in our hearts the families forever changed by grief and loss. Bring them consolation and comfort. Surround them with our prayers for strength. Bless those who have survived and heal their memories of trauma and devastation. May they have the courage to face the days ahead.

Ugly handwriting

I write all the time. Even when I process much more quickly using the computer, I still write. Those who know me best are familiar with my love for fountain pens and in the last few years I have put together a favorite collection I like to use on a regular basis.

And I can’t read my own handwriting at times.

Sin, death, resurrection

Today is the Fifth Sunday of Lent. A reflection from Fleming Rutledge’s book, The Crucifixion:

The contrast of the culture

I couldn’t get over the contrast on the page of The New York Times when I went to their page today. The first thing that caught me was the breaking news story of the tornadoes that killed 23 people in Mississippi overnight. We woke up to pouring rain, so I was wondering how much we had dodged a bigger storm. Then, I looked up the counties where the tornadoes had hit. The story in the Times related that the very poor rural county had 20 percent of its residents below the federal poverty line and a huge percentage lived in mobile homes.

The narrow door

The entrance to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is interesting. Everyone has to enter through a very small door. Once in, you come into this massive worship space.

Our “personal devotions” need a serious reformation

I have grown up in love with Scripture and have learned the two aspects of “quiet time”: Prayer and Bible reading. I have moved deeper into studying and had the ups and downs on “prayer life.”

And it’s not enough. It lacks.

Favorite Song of All — Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir

There are songs that have stayed DEEP in my soul. This one is so deep I can go a decade without hearing it and sing every word and weep the whole way through.

The identity I must face

“…participation in Christ means abandoning our pretenses, openly acknowledging our identities as sinners in bondage, and in the same moment realizing with a stab of piercing joy that the victory is already ours in Christ, won by him who died to save us.” Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion (p. 171)

Quit separating faith and works

“The basic problem is: What is right living? And life is indivisible. The inner sphere is never isolated from outward activities. Deed and thought are bound into one. All a person thinks and feels enters everything he does, and all he does is involved in everything he thinks and feels.”

— Thunder in the Soul: To Be Known By God (Plough Spiritual Guides: Backpack Classics) by Abraham Joshua Heschel
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