by Barry Creamer | Jun 7, 2023 | Devotionals
A genealogy culminating in Noah and his sons as the new hope for mankind is about its progenitor: Adam. “This is the book of the genealogy of Adam” (Genesis 5:1). A lineage arriving at the world divided in Babel is about its progenitors: Noah and his sons. “Now this...
by Barry Creamer | May 31, 2023 | Devotionals
Is a demon involved when something bad happens? Many of the people Jesus restores from physical and spiritual infirmities are oppressed by demons (e.g., Matthew 12:23, Matthew 8:23ff). Satan tempts Jesus (Matthew 4:1-11), and Jesus warns Peter that the adversary...
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 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 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 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 Barry Creamer | Apr 19, 2023 | Devotionals
Four centuries ago, a man who died before he was forty wrote these seasoned words: “Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, The bridal of the earth and sky; The dew shall weep thy fall to-night, For thou must die. “Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave Bids the rash...
by Barry Creamer | Apr 12, 2023 | Devotionals
The seemingly interminable toddling, rumbling, tumbling roll from our gate to the runway finally finished, the airliner’s jets crescendo to a bone-trembling roar as our safety-instructing flight attendants are still settling in to jump-seats fore and aft. Since I am...
by Barry Creamer | Apr 5, 2023 | Devotionals
Luke uses allusions to the world’s darkness, the Death of the Innocents, and Rachel’s weeping to describe Jesus’ death in his gospel (23:44-49). So the crucifixion carries the burden of history’s sin and law, man’s lostness and Israel’s longing. After the burial, Luke...
