"I believe, help my unbelief!" Those could be our words every day, especially in this time of daily fear and uncertainty. Is today the day that I will begin showing symptoms of the Covid-19 virus? Every day we ask God to help our unbelief, the attacks of fear and uncertainty in our lives. And every …
Where Distance Disappears
One member of our congregation told me the other day that she saw this time of social distancing as a time of retreat with herself. Isn’t that a wonderful way to see this thing we now call "social distancing"? And isn’t social distancing itself a rather poor label? We are social beings, after all. Haven’t …
The Best Apophatic Theologian
A case of contradictories, both of them true.There is a God. There is no God.Where is the problem? I am quite sure thatthere is a God in the sense that I amsure my love is no illusion. I am quite surethere is no God, in the sense that I am surethere is nothing which resembles …
It’s His Nature
In the middle of Lent we pause to reflect on the Cross of Jesus Christ. And we hear again Jesus calling us to take up our cross and follow him. Take up the cross that represents the weight of my ungodly thoughts and actions, the weight of my neglect of the least of his brothers and …
Take hold of your life!
I woke up this morning with a song that I kept singing quietly all morning: Κράτησα τη ζωή μου κράτησα τη ζωή μου ταξιδεύοντας ανάμεσα στα κίτρινα δέντρα κατά το πλάγιασμα της βροχής σε σιωπηλές πλαγιές φορτωμένες με τα φύλλα της οξιάς, καμιά φωτιά στην κορυφή τους˙ βραδιάζει. The very first line is the hardest to translate, for me at …
We need the prophets!
There are still two days left to Lent this year, but this is the end for me. This is the last of my Lenten Reflections for this year, and I'm writing it because of the reading today of Isaiah 58:1-11. We began Lent back Feb 23rd with Isaiah 1:1-20, a reading which included these words …
bible blog 1651
I’m taking a break from my daily Lenten reflections. Today’s reading of Genesis 22:1-18 is the story of Abraham’s “sacrifice” of his son, Isaac. Instead of my own thoughts, I’m re-posting the blog that my friend Mike Mair posted on this passage a month ago. He uses a different translation of the Bible than what I use, but he has some excellent thoughts on this crucial story from Genesis.
This blog has been following the book of Genesis and the Gospel of Mark since the new year. Previous posts can be found in my archives.
GENESIS 22 (from the Schocken Bible)
rembrandt
Now after these events it was
that God tested Avraham
and said to him:
Avraham!
He said:
Here I am.
He said:
Pray take your son,
your only one,
whom you love,
Yitzhak,
and go-you-forth to the land of Morriya / Seeing
and offer him up there as an offering-up
upon one of the mountains
that I will tell you of.
Avraham started early in the morning,
he saddled his donkey
and took his two serving lads with him and Yitzhak his son
he split wood for the offering-up
and arose and went to the place that God has told him of.
On the third day Avraham lifted his eyes
and saw the place from afar.
Avraham said…
View original post 1,498 more words
The Missing Comfort
The beginning of the Book of Isaiah identifies the period covered by the prophet: "The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah." This would place the ministry of Isaiah roughly in the period 750-700 BC, during the latter …
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Only Two Ways to be Honest with God
In thinking about today's reading from Genesis 12:1-7, I can't find something better to write than what Mike Mair wrote a couple months ago about this passage. He is a biblical blogger in Scotland whom I've quoted in the past and who has posted some responses to my own posts. I obtained his permission to quote …
Ancient Answers 