by Barry Creamer | May 24, 2023 | Devotionals
In ancient Israel, as much of the Mediterranean Basin, with no police, no formal court system, justice comes at the hand of a kinsman-redeemer, an avenger (same term). In one case, you are involved in the tragic but accidental death of your neighbor. His brother, the...
by Daisy Reynolds | May 17, 2023
Barry starts a conversation about mass shootings, inviting believers to think through narrowing the topic, developing parameters for response, and seeking clear-headed and soft-hearted means for conversing about challenging topics facing our culture. ...
by Barry Creamer | May 17, 2023 | Devotionals
Observing the sun through a telescope has blinded a lot of people and melted a lot of optics, and therefore requires a filter to eliminate 99.999%—that’s the real proportion; not hyperbole—of incoming light. So just before dawn I cover my scope’s aperture with solar...
by Barry Creamer | May 10, 2023 | Devotionals
Before the next graduate entered my office, I could hear her crying, administrators buoying her with affirmations. After some Lamaze breathing, she seemed composed again, ready to be delivered her diploma. Our Vice President for Academic Affairs led her to the...
by Daisy Reynolds | May 10, 2023
Psalm 49 describes our descent into the fear of death while offering a handhold out—a much better shepherd than the one we first see inside the boundaries of birth and death. Scriptures: Psalm 49 Matt 10:28 James 2:1-7 Psalm...
by Daisy Reynolds | May 3, 2023
Using Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem, Barry talks about how challenging it is to acknowledge our own frailties and yet maintain a moral standard. Peacemakers in God’s world have to do both. Book: Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on...
by Barry Creamer | May 3, 2023 | Devotionals
God invites—commands—us to speak with him. And before we ask, “But what should we say?”, he has already written and delivered to us an entire book of poetic prayers to read or recite back to him. Circumstance invites—compels—us to speak with God, to implore his...
by Daisy Reynolds | Apr 26, 2023
Barry concludes a series about evangelism and the dangers of “selling the gospel.” God tore the veil not to get more people into the temple, but to get the church into more of the world. Scripture: Luke 9, 10, 19 Acts 24 Isaiah...
by Barry Creamer | Apr 26, 2023 | Devotionals
Altruism. Between curfew and quarantine I have learned something of bird behavior from the back yard feeder. Tiny tufted titmice skitter from black-capped chickadees, in turn shooed by mere sparrows. Sparrows are rousted by cardinals, cardinals banished by Blue Jays,...
by Daisy Reynolds | Apr 19, 2023
Barry bemoans the fact that sometimes our best efforts with the Good News are only a means to some things we errantly think better. He invites us to develop a different mental model as he describes some learning experiences in the development of his own ministry....
