by Barry Creamer | Mar 29, 2023 | Devotionals
From the Mount of Olives Jesus approaches Jerusalem, his followers chanting messianic Psalms. “Save us, we pray, O LORD!” And “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD.” As the Pharisees urge him to quell the crowd,...
by Barry Creamer | Mar 22, 2023 | Devotionals
Strong leaders and good leaders: not the same thing. Strong leaders require nothing more than confidence. Video-festos of feigned expertise stock the tank today. History is sedimented with puffered professors and preachers, postured politicians and pundits, angry...
by Barry Creamer | Mar 15, 2023 | Devotionals
“How long till we’re home?” “About 45 minutes.” A friend had asked the question from the van’s back seat just before what would turn out to be a dirty fuel filter began eroding the vehicle’s performance, most notably reducing its velocity from...
by Barry Creamer | Mar 8, 2023 | Devotionals
In the attached photo from Friday evening, cirrus lightly veils the moon. Skies meteorologists predicted would be clear delivered thin clouds. As James describes it, our life is a mist (ἀτμὶς = atmis) that appears for a little time and then vanishes. In moments of...
by Barry Creamer | Mar 1, 2023 | Devotionals
Age 9, I slept bedroom door closed, lights off, and ground-floor window wide open. Then I saw “The Legend of Boggy Creek.” The movie itself—a B-grade documentary of cherry-picked evidence and sensationalized reenactments—was terrifying enough. (If you’ve seen it, or...
by Barry Creamer | Feb 22, 2023 | Devotionals
Peter declares the skeptic’s assumption: “All things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” We live persistently in the skeptic’s rationale—not the skepticism, mind you; just the rationale. For us, confidence in the present provides comfort: air...
by Barry Creamer | Feb 15, 2023 | Devotionals
From my bedroom, my 13 year old ears heard my 17 year old sister and her friends (I think from church) hooting in the living room to a Sunday night episode of British comedy on public television. Already supposed to be asleep, I crept down the hall unnoticed to watch...
by Barry Creamer | Feb 8, 2023 | Devotionals
I had already proven to many an accusatory fellow chorister that my voice was not the one dragging us flat when I recorded myself alone in an acoustically friendly room on a cassette recorder. Playback was not kind. Either the batteries were low, or my voice was less...
by Barry Creamer | Feb 1, 2023 | Devotionals
A lane-wide clearing wound miles through dense woods to my destination. Reaching 30mph on obviously-not-maintained-by-county caliche was challenge enough for me. To my right, 3 whitetails glided through the autumn-browning olive green bramble of briar, brush, and...
by Barry Creamer | Jan 25, 2023 | Devotionals
A dim shimmer ghosted behind my arm’s gentle sweep, allowing me to see again the hand previously shrouded by darkness. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, and would not have believed its magnitude had I not experienced it myself. Underwater 30 feet, my first night...
