Pastor Tom's Journal

SILENCE ... ... loud, audacious silence. I say nothing, grunt nothing, shout nothing. That tree fell in the forest and no one heard a thing because there was nothing to be heard. Which means ... I guess when I grunt and shout over such things, I must be playing to the audience and there must be a reason I do. When I am alone, I just stop and clean it, fix it, or bandage it.                                          Let's just take care of business ... or whatever we need to take care of ...

The best is yet to come! " When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him." (John 2:9-11 ESV) It's not the end of the party yet. The real party has just begun!

Swanson, John August. Story of Joseph, from Art in the Christian Tradition , a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56562 [retrieved February 23, 2025]. Original source: Estate of John August Swanson, https://www.johnaugustswanson.com/.   Genesis 45:3–11, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant o...

Blessings and Curses   You might say that blessings and curses are two different experiences of the same reality. The ultimate reality is God, revealed, present, speaking, acting in history, confronting us in our lives. The experience of God is  how we respond. That determines whether an encounter with God is a blessing or a curse.   Jeremiah 17:5-10 Those who trust the Lord are like trees   Thus says the LORD: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the LORD. They shall be like a shrub in the desert and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.   Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does no...

We are delivered hard lessons in life, hard, redemptive lessons, the likes of which are recounted in Psalm 78. These came upon an entire nation. They would wander, rebel, stumble, suffer, and repent, get up, be blessed, and sin again. "In spite of all this, they went on sinning * and had no faith in his wonderful works." (v.32) In what ways is sin reduced to having no faith? Sin - judgement - repentance - blessing - sin. When does God get enough? The section ends with " But he was so merciful that he forgave their sins and did not destroy them; many times he held back his anger and did not permit his wrath to be roused. For he remembered that they were but flesh, a breath that goes forth and does not return. (38-39) Then, the psalm goes on and the pattern continues and intensifies until it crescendos in the time of its composition with a surprising summary of grace: God sent them a shepherd with a servant's heart. That was His answer, a shepherd. "So h...