by Barry Creamer | Jan 5, 2022 | Devotionals
Finding our seats in the auditorium for one of those rare-enough-to-be-special but repeated-enough-to-be-mundane assemblies recognizing the end or beginning of a year or grade, my high school classmate whispered his disaffected disapproval. “Why?” I asked. “Because...
by Barry Creamer | Dec 29, 2021 | Devotionals
I have been in the circle when it happens. A voice offers and sustains a sound; another adds a variant, a different pitch, a different timbre; then another, and so forth. But then, everyone already accounted, the sounds swell and coalesce into something beyond all the...
by Barry Creamer | Dec 22, 2021 | Devotionals
Long ago in a faraway land there lived a people whom God freed from bondage to an evil king in Egypt, whom he led and fed with fire and bread from heaven, and whom he claimed as his own. One of them received all of these things from God freely, and yet—having entered...
by Daisy Reynolds | Dec 22, 2021
The good news of Christmas Day sweeps through the countryside and temple, past and present, and brings with it a promise as old as our wildest dreams—Emmanuel. Scriptures: Genesis 12:1-3 Ruth 1-2 2 Chronicles 3:10-17 Luke 1:76-79, 2:4-14,...
by Daisy Reynolds | Dec 15, 2021
Barry talks about why sometimes we front-load the good news with bad news instead, and he offers a new way of thinking about our part in sharing the gospel. Scriptures: Acts 14:8-17, 17:22-31, 3:13-15 Ephesians 4:15 Matthew 23 Ezekiel 34: 1-6 Luke...
by Barry Creamer | Dec 15, 2021 | Devotionals
Sunshine illuminates blue skies, inviting bright demeanors, optimistic outlooks, an end to sorrow. Yet in the 19th Psalm the heat of sunshine stands in for the general revelation of God’s judgment, from which everyone wishes to hide. Rain falls from dreary or hostile...
by Barry Creamer | Dec 8, 2021 | Devotionals
As a native Texan, I feel at home from Texarkana to El Paso, from South Padre to Canadian, from Big Thicket to Big Bend. When I tell people about sandstorms and rattlesnakes in Crane, or free August Rangers games in Arlington, they know I’m from here. Yet even after...
by Daisy Reynolds | Dec 8, 2021
The sentiment, “If you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself” doesn’t work when it comes to faith. Barry talks through James 5:12-20 and discusses the somewhat uncomfortable truth that our faith depends on others as much as theirs depends on us....
by Barry Creamer | Dec 1, 2021 | Devotionals
In stark contrast to the pep rally and music, the quick, crisp, intersecting parabolas with which our junior high band director’s baton marks a 3-something time signature has my full attention. Rather than carving smooth arcs in the air, the white baton leaves a...
