DEVOTION
Dive deeper into your faith with Dr. Barry Creamer.
The Plumes We Introduce
Mowing a strip of grass beside the alley behind my house, I nudge against a low, dead stump. The fungus I did not formerly notice erupts, producing a shockingly dense plume of ashen spores. The release continues for several seconds, a gentle breeze wafting the cloud...
No Idle Promise of Persistent Sunshine and Roses
I spend Sunday morning this weekend at a church I have never previously served a couple of hours east of Dallas. As is to be expected for a first worship time together, all is well. After lingering in conversation with some congregants and church leadership, I pile...
Lush Lawns and Scraggly Bushes
The west Texas of my earliest childhood is desert. Green grass and trees taller than children erupt only where wells peek into the water table and pipes or channels distribute the benefit. Nearby sandhills, reminiscent of Mojave dunes, emphasize the region’s...
Listen, Learn, Decide
Papa (paw’paw’) is my closest grandparent. From my earliest years even I notice he treats me like the lost dauphin. When I stay with him, I get whatever I want, which is, as it turns out, mostly just to stay with him. Some of Papa’s edges are not just rough but gone....
Empty, Needy People
When he seeks refuge at the cave of Adullam, David’s legitimately earned reputation is already mythic: shepherd-protector of his father’s flocks, hero of Elah’s valley, and ten times over the greater warrior than king Saul. Saul’s own daughter and son are more loyal...
The Troubler of Israel
The sun has a cycle. At solar minimum, there is relatively little activity on our star’s surface; that is, considering there’s an ongoing thermonuclear reaction at its core. But at solar maximum, sunspots, flares, prominences, and coronal mass ejections multiply....