Living life with steps of faith

A passage that addresses all my questions and fears that I now claim as my own: Exodus 23:25-26, "Worship the LORD your God,  and his blessing will be on your food and water.  I will take away sickness from among you,  and none will miscarry or be barren in your land.  I will give you a full life span." Amen!

Your gracious care, O Lord, extends beyond our human race, it enfolds plant life, animals, nature, and even angels! Your covenant of love has no borders. Jesus, Your perfection has grandeur greater than  St. Helens, Mt. Everest, and the Alps combined. The depth of wisdom to your judgments, who can comprehend? Through them you bring about life for both humanity and the animal kingdom. How great of value is Our Mighty One! We find comfort and safety in Your wake. Your supply is overwhelming, You not only provide for our needs, but delight in our pleasures as well. You are our womb. From within Your being, we gain vision and sight. Persevere, O Lord, in being our teddy bear, the One who comforts and loves us and invites us to be intimately known. Share Your perfection with us, and make our hearts right like Your own. Amen.

  “ So God created mankind in his own image,    in the image of God he created them;    male and female he created them. “ Genesis 1:27 This is the foundation of our identity as human beings – created beings made to reflect the image of God.   As such, we are blessed with authority and abilities that no other living creation possesses.   We create.   We think.   We value relationships.   Our existence is a testimony to God’s existence. And as Christians, this identity becomes the heartbeat of our ethics.   We make decisions and behave in manners that recognize the value of human life. We look at our relatives, our friends, our colleagues, and even the stranger on the street and take the time to see the image of God in each of them.   We know that each and every life is precious, including our own. We also recognize the intimacy with God that this identity engenders.   As ones created in God...

So this blog is a blog of personal bewilderment.  Everyone is pregnant! Yes, indeed they are.  Let's see: Of my two best female friends - one is already a mother & the other found out this spring that she is carrying a little one in her womb.  I'm so glad that she was the first person to tell me that she was pregnant. Then there is our couple's small group leaders - they are expecting their first. Next up, is my closest guy friend from seminary - his wife is expecting. Then my best guy friend from middle school through high school - his wife is expecting. Then there is one of my closest clergy friends - she is expecting.  In fact she told me she was pregnant when I called her to confirm that she wasn't.  Everyone else was expecting - so why shouldn't she? Then there is one of the women from seminary who was my theology partner.  She recently announced that she is expecting. My roommate from college called to tell me she is pregnant. And today ...

"As you go, proclaim the good news, 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons." - Matthew 10:7-8 Do you ever wonder why these miracles don't seem to happen anymore?  I've been reading through the gospels and I am struck by the loudness of the theme of healing.  The good news in the gospel accounts isn't just that God has came to us through Jesus Christ, but that the healing authority of God has come to us through Jesus Christ. Do you think this is still true today? Sometimes I think we U.S. Christians have it all wrong.  I think we've missed the message and missed out on the supernatural aspect of faith.  God can still work miracles today!  And it seems in my reading of Scripture that God wants to work those miracles through us.  So, why aren't we letting Him? Prayer:   God, You Created, You gave Life, You Healed.  Help me to experience Your miraculous, supernatural power today....

Dear Parents/Guardians, For many young people, the tragedy of Japan is their first memorable experience of a major natural disaster. I’m sure that many parents have been asked some difficult questions by their teenage children. I want to encourage you as a parent to be responsive to their questions, even if your responsiveness is a simple, “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand either.” I also want to provide you with some resources that will help you to answer your children’s questions as well as initiate some discussions of your own. Here are a few good websites: http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/parenting/talk-to-kids-media-violence.shtml http://birmingham.patch.com/articles/finding-time-to-talk-learn-during-time-of-tragedy http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=7ZZWYWNX Family Devotion Option: Watch this video: http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=9CC9FFNU (You may want to screen this first to decide if it is appropriate for your children.) Pray together for Japan a...

29 Minutes for 29 Miners: Unplug to Remember Lives Lost Type: Causes - Rally Date: Thursday, April 29, 2010 Time: 7:00pm - 7:30pm Location: Everywhere and Anywhere Description At the end of every plug and light switch, thousands of hard workers are toiling away in the dark in order to keep our lights on. On April 29th remember the cherished lives of the 29 people who died in the April 5th Upper Big Branch mine disaster by powering down from 7 to 7:29 pm EST. Unplug electronics, switch off your lights, or turn off your cell phone. Let's honor those who provide the fuel for over half of our electricity! Please help me to promote this event by adding a similar post to your blog and encouraging others to do the same! Just one blog post - pretty simple! In January I went on an immersion study trip to eastern Kentucky in the Appalachian Mountains. The team that I joined was made up of seminary students from across the country. We wanted to do something in response to the recent mine d...

"In the beginning..." Today I started reading through the Bible, Creation to the Throne of God. In just about 5 months I will be ordained as a minister in the Christian church. When I met with the pastor of my home congregation to discuss the ordination process, he challenged me to consider how I might spiritually prepare for ordination. One of the ways I decided to prepare was by reading through the whole Bible between now and then. While I was on my intercultural immersion study trip in east Kentucky, I learned a lot about the relationship between humans and the earth. I was reminded of how I am lacking in my appreciation for and understanding of nature. Consequently, I feel led to use the Green Bible as my source of devotion for this time period of preparation. I also hope to reflect upon nature by planting a garden this spring and reading from my undergraduate Environmental Studies book. Today's reading was the story of Creation and Re-Creation through the flood. ...

I've been pretty silent when it comes to the discussion of Global Warming. The reason - it always seems that there is some new scientific concern that enlists people to change their habits to prevent the end of the world. In many ways I think arguments in both directions are inconclusive. I agree we should change our habits to better take care of the earth which God has stewarded to us, but I don't think this change in habits must be associated with a form of doom-prevention. We need to change our habits for the foremost because we care and our called to be good stewards. A co-worker recently passed on this article to me that I thought I would share here. I am not sharing it to enforce its position, but rather to demonstrate that we can throw our analysis of scientific fact back-and-forth and that our position is largely based upon our interpretation. Yes, I believe that we either are or are not experiencing global warming. Yes, I believe that whichever condition is true there ...

Listen to these two verses: Isaiah 40:10-11 "See, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep." Imagine these two verses. God's mighty arm. What do you picture? God's arm that gathers the lambs. What do you picture? How do these two images fit together? God of strength. God of gentleness. A perfect image of a caring, protective Father. What does it mean to be held by the gentle and caring, but strong arms of God?

"It follows from this that the universe is good, that the reason for its present lamentable state is not to be sought in the Creator but in the fact that the highest created state is that of a free, rational being, so that to create a universe capable of containing the highest form of goodness was to create a universe that depended on the free obedience of rational beings, the fall being the failure of rational beings to remain faithful to the good." - taken from xlviii of the Introduction to Genesis I-II in the "Ancient Christian Commentary On Scriptures: Old Testament I: Genesis I-II" edited by Andrew Louth, Marco Conti, Thomas C. Oden, and a list of others.

"God ordered all things to be produced so that there would be common food for all, and so that the earth would be the common inheritance of all. Thus, nature has produced a common right, but greed has made it the right of a few." - Ambrose of Milan

The world belongs to God. All that is in the created world belongs to God. It all belongs to God, because He is the Creator. God is not only the Creator of the world, but also its Founder, and the One who Establishes. The world was founded on water. The world was established on rivers. Water is a basic substance to God's creative activity. Water seems to have been his clay of sorts. What does science have to say about this? All who live in the world also belong to God. What does this mean for or say about those who do not recognize that they are God's? The earth is associated with all of God's creation. The world is associated with God's living creation. The earth belongs to God. God created the earth. Is there a difference between the earth and created non-breathing matter and the world and breathing, living things of the flesh? NRSV - "The earth is the LORD's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; for he has founded it on the seas, and...

NRSV - "The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it." We as humans were put in our earthly home in order to care for it. Are we doing our job?

God spoke not only to Noah, but also to the sons of Noah who were present with Noah. the covenant belongs to God The establishment of the covenant is initiated by God and is an act of God. How many generations qualify as the "descendants" of Noah and his sons? The covenant was not only established with Noah and his sons, but also with all living creatures that were with these men. Every "living creature" is identified with birds, domestic animals, and every animal on earth with Noah and his sons. The covenant is established with all those living creatures, humans included, that came out of the ark. The Covenant = "never again all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood." More of the Covenant = "never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." All future generations are included in this covenant. A bow set in the clouds is the sign or the testimony of the covenant between God and all living creatures that are with humanity. The sign of ...

Darkness existed and then God created Light. Thus, darkness is at the very basic, the natural order of things. Whereas, light is natural as created. Thus light is the gift to the darkness and it is what breaks up the darkness. Light comes forth from God and is a good creation of God. Evening and morning is created. Prior to this act of God, morning did not exist. Evening or darkness came first and then morning and light. The day started with the evening and then moved into the morning. The word "day" is defined for the first time and it is defined by God's creation of light. Thus the first day of creation was bounded by evening and morning. The waters are separated by a dome of sky. There is water beneath the sky, but at creation there was/is also water above this dome of sky. All that seems to have existed below the new dome called "sky" was water. God changed this by separating the water and creating land. This reminds me of God separating the w...