Pastor Tom's Journal

Believing Is Seeing Mark 10:46-52 “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” - Erasmus     What is in a name? They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside.   What did Bartimaeus see? When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"   What did the “many” miss seeing? Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"   Take heart – a three-point sermon in a three-part sentence. Jesus stood still and said, "Call him here." And they called the blind man, saying to him,   "Take heart;   get up, he is calling you."   His last possession – Another three-parter So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.   A searching question and a simple answer

  Raysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine  -  Own work History. I read it every  day. I take, at least, a shallow dive into the history of events on the day of the month I am experiencing, looking back over the centuries.  It helps keep everything in perspective. I quote from Wikipedia and footnote its sources: History  (derived from  Ancient Greek   ἱστορία  ( historía ) 'inquiry; knowledge acquired by investigation') [ 1 ]  is the systematic study and documentation of the human  past . [ 2 ] [ 3 ]  History is an  academic discipline  which uses a  narrative  to describe, examine, question, and analyze past events, and investigate their patterns of cause and effect. [ 4 ] [ 5 ]  Historians debate which narrative best explains an event, as well as the significance of different causes and effects. Historians debate the  nature of history  as an end in itself, and its usefulness in giving perspective on the problems of the present. [ 4 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] History records m

Can You Drink the Cup? "And they said unto him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized:" - Mark 10:39   I do not know what I can do.   Nor do I really understand the price of the things I desire and require.   The disciples were posturing and negotiating. Who was most important among them? Who would be entitled to sit with Jesus in his throne room? They still assumed it would be like Herod’s throne.   It was a rather immature exercise. Yet, we still do it, even when we are more subtle about it.   We flash our credentials and flaunt our titles. We brag about our accomplishments and list our achievements as often as possible .  It may be insecurity; it may be self-doubt; or we may just be prideful.   We try to leverage our relationship with Jesus and our spiritual insights for material wealth, prestige, and power.   Jesus says directly to them that they have no idea

I never tire of this piece and your presentation has transported me beyond this tired realm of dust and decay. I hope that someday, I can ascend from this place to my permanent home with such beauty in my ears. I am trembling now in anticipation and joy.

  Thoughts Are Things with Wings Let us glorify God in our bodies. It is a difficult thing when our appetites, cravings, and desires shout with such fever pitched shrills seeking to drown out the quiet and still voice of God whose voice is even more pronounced yet deep. We tune to the frequency of perishable fading sounds and tune out that which is truly refreshing and life-giving love. It is our journey and our struggle, but not ours alone. '“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you n

  The classic poem, "The Creation" written by James Weldon Johnson and Read by the classic actor,, James Earl Jones Order 25th edition The Creation James Weldon Johnson Musical setting: Aaron Copland, New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein ------------------------------------------- And God stepped out on space, And he looked around and said: I'm lonely— I'll make me a world. And far as the eye of God could see Darkness covered everything, Blacker than a hundred midnights Down in a cypress swamp. Then God smiled, And the light broke, And the darkness rolled up on one side, And the light stood shining on the other, And God said: That's good! Then God reached out and took the light in his hands, And God rolled the light around in his hands Until he made the sun; And he set that sun a-blazing in the heavens. And the light that was left from making the sun God gathered it up in a shining ball And flung it against the darkness, Spangling the night with the moon and

Mark 8 27 - 9 1 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition   In those days when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat, he called his disciples and said to them, “I have compassion for the crowd because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way—and some of them have come from a great distance.” His disciples replied, “How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?” He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” Then he ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd. They had also a few small fish, and after blessing them he ordered that these, too, should be distributed. They ate and were filled, and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Now there were about four thousand

    Worship The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called th earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.   - Psalm 50:10   The call to worship that resounds throughout history is the call of an evangel, a bearer of good news. It is a summons to recognize that God is Sovereign over all things and is worthy of our worship.   But that message also recognizes and publishes the truth that fallen man can bring no offering that God can need or accept except as he or she has been cleansed by the loving, gracious, and merciful redemptive act of God in reconciliation.   God's love compels the worshipper to propagate the message of grace.  God's passion for people to come into a loving and worshipping whole-life relationship is the driving force of the mission of Christ and of the early church.   God will not be contained in temples made with hands but has chosen to make sanctuaries of the human heart and declare that reasonable worship extends beyond