DEVOTION
Dive deeper into your faith with Dr. Barry Creamer.
Bread from Heaven
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...
Stormy Weather
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...
God’s (Actual) Country
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...
The Fulness of (Any) Things
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...
Beware: Pottery in Use
They sit in perfectly disarrayed order unused for the moment: bowls with or without legs or pedestal; jars and cups with and without handle; pots, vases, dishes, pitchers. Each is the product of a loved daughter’s hand—testimony to the creativity and artisanship she...
More Than Brother So-and-so and Sister What-not
Barry and his sister, Michelle, at ages 5 and 8 respectively (6 years before the story below). I am 10 or 11 years old, the only one at home when I hear my teenage sister come through the front door. I am immediately inspired to hide in the clothes hamper. She...