Photo: Desolation, Desmond Almarales, with permission 
Elizabeth Cecilia Clephane wrote ten hymns in the years between 1872-1874 in a collection called Family Treasury. From what I’ve read on the website Hymnary.org, her hymns appear in hymnbooks in at least ten languages throughout the world, and this is one of my favorites. On Good Friday, it makes the crucifixion…..
I’ll be cleaning the house this week, preparing for Easter. I’ll fluff up the bouquet of silk flowers, bright yellow ones with forsythia, reminding me of springtime in the North. I’ll put out the iris dish and the vase with purple iris on it, and hang the iris paintings on the wall behind it. I love spring…..
Most of us have weeks that are busy, perhaps significant, and looking at our calendars, we sometimes wonder where the strength will come from to accomplish our tasks. Jesus had such a week, his last as He faced the cross. He had the joy of adulation on Palm Sunday when He was hailed as king. Unlikely, though, He was riding on a…..
According to Luke 1:32, “No word from God will every fail.” His plan for salvation can be traced from the beginning to the end of Scripture. God’s attributes are revealed on every page: His sovereignty, His judgments, His mercy, His power, His righteousness, His patience, His healing, His love, His plan, His victory, His compassion, His benevolence, His presence with us.
No more picture of God in all His aspects can be seen in the events of Holy Week. He reveals…..
This is traditionally April Fool’s Day, a time when, as kids, we played pranks or told weird stories or thought of news that wasn’t news at all, and after careful narratives, ended with a hearty, “April Fools!”
I’m afraid much of which we are experiencing in the news and in rumblings of new détentes, the arrest of a former President, news of yet…..
As humans, we are all indicted, charged with crimes against God, since early in our creation. The minute early inhabitants, created by God, decided their own way was better than God’s plan, we were doomed to the specter of death and enmity between ourselves and God that we by ourselves can never change. But God, in His love for us, provided a pathway to…..
In this life there are many trials. The last few days we have heard stories of war, of crime, of murder of children and church-school staff adults, of enemy nations consorting together, of political rivalries, of WOKE, of alternate lifestyles, of riots and disputes. Yes, negativity sells papers, they used to say. Murder mysteries and spy…..
Once more we grieve. This time at a PCA church school in Nashville. We ask once more, how can good come from senseless tragedy? How does the pastor of this church lead his people while mourning his little daughter, Hallie? How is the timing part of the tragedy as we prepare for Holy Week?
Without the resurrection of Jesus on Easter, we would mourn without hope. Only when we know that God still limits the power of satan or we…..
Shutterstock image, used by permission.
My Psalm 334 is title “Glory” This is a term that brings me satisfaction. One of my favorite books I completed is called “Live-Changing Water: Chaos to Glory” because it traces God’s providential story of salvation from Genesis to Revelation. He brought chaos to glory through the salvation message of Jesus Christ. I am…..
I like this passage from 1 Peter 5:6-7. When life becomes overwhelming, it’s good to know that God is our refuge, and that if He can control the whole universe and holds me in the hollow of His hands, I can rely on that merciful knowledge to hold things in perspective.
Chaos on the news, personal issues, and a feeling that I’ve set too many goals for my eighty-two year old body seem to cause me sleeplessness and a sense…..