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Fine China
One of my earliest memories was setting the table for my mother. It must have been a special time because we used her strawberry dishes from the curio cabinet. The setting would boast of homemade bread and mom’s red sauce pasta. A salad plate was on top as usual; a side plate for the oil. It might just be my nostalgic sense, but I was saddened to read of the reasons for getting rid of “grandma’s china dishes” in the Associated Press. Younger couples are either uncultured or just don’t have room to store the occasional plate wear. Some spoke…
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Dreaming dreams . . .
Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: Dreaming dreams . . . it is so very different from seeing visions. In some respects and among those who decipher such things, to dream a dream implies a deliberate act. It attends to the consciousness; the hope of a person for something good or profound to occur in the future. Visions are different. The biblical references to seeing visions lends…
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Serve
I wish I could count how many times I have heard the statement, “There are only two different kinds of people in the world.” The answer is usually a showcase of polar points in some facet. Christianity is no different as it hosts its own “kinds” of people. Some are filled with doubt and others with faith; some with boldness and others with fear. However, when I strip away the myriad of examples, I always seem to land on those who Serve and those who are Served. It is the difference between the Takers and the Givers. Consider the day…
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Hatkarwadi
Hatkarwadi is a speck on the map in Beed where more than a million people have been hit by drought. Beed is in the province of Maharashtra which is in the country of India. Seeing that there are 1.4 billion Indians, 20% of the world’s population, the one million struggling people are barely noticed. Hakardadi is not the only place without water, but it does represent a spiritual phenomena. Why do people stay where there is no water? The surrounding area of Beed casts a long shadow of tradition and normalcy bias. Only two of the 35 wells have water…
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His mission
The simplicity of our directives were spelled out by Jesus Christ Himself. If we consider all religious and spiritual activities; biblical doctrines and understandings, we must recognize the greatest of them all. The question was this: Matthew 22:36-40 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the…
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Merry Christmas. Jesus is born.
Good news! It looks like Christ can stay in Christmas after all. Retailers, movie stars, and even government officials have begun using the term “Merry Christmas” again. Though some are still deeply offended by the words, there seems to be a resurgence in advertisement that includes both “Happy Holidays” and “Merry Christmas.” More good news! Jesus may also have a place in this resurgence of the yearly festival. It appears that we can say “Merry Christmas” and consider the baby Jesus all in one breath. As long as He is wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger, there will…
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The Battle of the Bulge
Tomorrow, decades ago, the world was holding its collective breath. The wooded region of Ardennes was soon to be left twisted and torn like that of a tornado’s rampage. While I often bypass this historical moment in leu of more pleasant Christmas thoughts, this year seemed to stall at the juncture of Winston Churchill’s declaration that this was “the greatest American battle of the War.” The six-week battle saw a suffering unlike anything we have ever seen in our modern era. Beside the 15,000 extreme cold weather injuries, over 100,000 men lay lifeless in the snow at The Battle of…
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Word Police
If you haven’t noticed, the “Word Police” are actively looking into your conversation. This week marked another series of culturally approved words while dispelling the formerly offensive ones. As you might imagine, we are in a hypersensitive society where appropriation can result in loss of jobs and friends. It’s also a time ruled by people who seek to smear the once accepted fact of gender separation. Even marital terms seem to be offensive, i.e., “husband and wife.” For some reason these words cause people pain and are said to be found too exclusive. Instead we are told to use the…
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“Powerful” Churches
Geoff Pender first turned me on to the news. Writing for The Clarion Ledger, Pender predicted the day when retailers in Mississippi would receive their first ever lottery ticket distribution. Vice chairman of the Mississippi Lottery Board, Gerard Gibert, was ecstatic to announce this week that the end of the opposition to the lottery in the southern state had taken place. What really peaked my interest however were the words of Danielle Genovese who explained the reason for the hold-out state. She wrote, “For decades Mississippi was one of only six states without a lottery due to strong opposition from…
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Climate change
Climate change, I cannot think a more divisive debate in our world today. While the subject weighs on world economies, political positions seem to be impacted the most. In brief, the theory is that human activity causes an increase in carbon emissions, thus creating an increase in the earth’s atmospheric temperatures through a series of ozone failures. In layman’s terms, humanity’s proceedings is causing the earth to warm. California’s smog has been used as an example. When the winds are silent, carbon dioxide and other pollutions hover in the noonday sky. Beijing, China is dealing with the same issue. Too…