Advent Day 3: Going Home
I thought I might do a little something, this year, that would help me focus on what this season is really about, and maybe it could help you, too. I’m going to take the story of Jesus’s birth, found in Luke 2, and go verse by verse, 1 through 24, to see what happens. Here we go… And everyone went to their own town to register. ~ Luke 2:3 NIV "Everyone went to their own town." The big spiritual take away I get from this is that is sounds very Christmasy. (If you're interested, I'll be teaching a course on exegesis at a local seminary near you. You know, because of my mad theology skills. 😉 ) Seriously, though, they were all going home. Home to their own towns. Home to, very...
Advent Day 2: Truth
I thought I might do a little something, this year, that would help me focus on what this season is really about, and maybe it could help you, too. I’m going to take the story of Jesus’s birth, found in Luke 2, and go verse by verse, 1 through 24, to see what happens. Here we go… (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) Luke 2:2 NIV The passage above has been read a million times, by people all over the world, when reading the beloved story of Christ's birth. It's a point of historical reference given by Dr. Luke, or so it seems. But, truthfully, I've never done any digging on it, or Governer Quirinius, for that matter. When I did, I opened...
Advent Day 1: In Those Days
December 1st. The official first day of the Christmas season, and the first day of Advent. I thought I might do a little something that would help me focus on what this season is really about, and maybe it could help you, too. I'm going to take the story of Jesus's birth, found in Luke 2, and go verse by verse, 1 through 24, to see what happens. Here we go... In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. Can you imagine what it was like "in those days?" Slow-moving by today's standards, even for the Roman Empire, and manual. I think of that period of time and the first picture that comes to mind is that everyone is...
Write Your Best Life
Things were silent in these parts yesterday for a very good reason. I was up and on the road quite early to head for Austin, where I had the privilege of delivering the eulogy I'd written for my young cousin, Whitney's, memorial. My daughter, Emmie, went with me (Kevin and Maddie stayed behind to attend to some barn issues), and after the service was over, she said to me, "Can you outlive me so you can write my eulogy?" After a quick reminder that parents are not supposed to outlive their children (and a sobering one, given our reason for being there at the time), she said, "Well, can you just write my eulogy now, you know, how my life is supposed to go, so I can just follow it and...
Saturated
It has been raining since Thanksgiving evening. The consistent precipitation, ranging from heavy mist to more than one hours-long deluge, is not supposed to let up until tomorrow night. Our completely dry five acre pond is now completely full, water is seeping from the lawn onto the front walk, filling the low place in the concrete, and if you step on the grass, it's so spongy that the water comes up around your foot. Yes, to say we are saturated out here is a bit of an understatement. After spending a good bit of the year with a rather dry spirit, I considered the soggy landscape this morning over hot tea. There are reasons we are to soak our spirits in Living Water. It makes our...