Unfortunately, it was not possible to make a podcast recording of today’s reflection. Each day this month we’re looking closely at one of the 1:1 verses of the Bible – exploring what we can learn from chapter one / verse one of various Old and New Testament books. Exodus 1:1 “These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Each day this month we’re looking closely at one of the 1:1 verses of the Bible – exploring what we can learn from chapter one / verse one of various Old and New Testament books. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) We begin with what… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here “It was a dark and stormy night…” That’s the opening line from the 1830 novel Paul Clifford by English writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton. It is widely regarded as the worst opening line in the history of English literature, and has been endlessly parodied. Charlie Brown’s dog Snoopy, who was committed to writing the… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here It won’t be a surprise if you see werewolves, vampires, and mummies on the hunt for Hershey’s bars in your neighborhood this evening. You might also see that most recent addition to the pantheon of scary Halloween monsters: the demented clown. How in the world did a figure of fun become… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here “Most of us stand out in our own minds… Each of us is the center of our own universe.” Those words are from the opening paragraph of a landmark 2000 study that was published under the daunting title The Spotlight Effect in Social Judgment: An Egocentric Bias in Estimates of the… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Do you notice anything strange in this picture? This is a snapshot of Exodus chapter 20 as it appears in a 1631 London publication of the King James Bible. Exodus 20 is famous as the “home” of the Ten Commandments. But a word appears to be missing in verse 14. “Thou shalt… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here How does the growth of God’s kingdom – the extending of his reign over human life – actually take place? Such gains rarely happen through epic battles or signature pieces of legislation. God seems pleased instead to use countless small acts of courage, generosity, and kindness. Ernest Gordon was a… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here “Water, water everywhere, and all the boards did shrink; water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.” Those famous words come from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 poem in which he describes a sailor who, stranded in the middle of the ocean, is dying of thirst… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here If you assess the national landscape of outdoor Halloween decorations, Skelly is hard to miss. Skelly the Skeleton, who debuted at Home Depot in 2020, is a whopping 12 feet tall, “big enough to look down on a basketball hoop,” as his creators put it. The team that brought him to… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here For just one evening, the horrors of the Civil War gave way to something beautiful. On a December night in 1862, Union and Confederate troops were encamped on opposite banks of the Rappahannock River in Virginia. The battle of Fredericksburg had raged just a few days earlier. The Yankees, in particular,… Read more »