Bible at Home

St. Augustine once wrote in a sermon, “Behold, sometimes we are made glad by a certain inner sweetness. Yes, our mind has been able to catch a glimpse , for a fleeting instant, of something above change. . . .Now I have a sense throughout my being of something beyond time.” (Sermon 158) When we…

When I was in junior high school my class took a field trip to a newspaper publisher’s building where we watched the production of a newspaper. At one stop we saw a tall machine that we were told was one of the most valuable in the building . It had only one function, and only…

President Harry Truman famously kept a sign on his desk that read “The Buck Stops Here.” When I listen to the news or read the newspaper I feel as if our whole world is wondering where the “buck” stops, who or what is to blame for every natural or man—made disaster or even difficulty. Consensus…

The story of the Exodus is the story of freedom in every sense. It’s the story of a helpless people who cried out to God, and beyond all hope and expectation were entirely released from the bondage of slavery to a foreign power. This freedom required courage and obedience from the people, but no particular…

The Queen’s Laughter Queen Elizabeth II visited Houston in 1991 when I was living there, and I went to City Hall to see her. She and Prince Phillip were seated on a covered platform out doors overlooking the reflecting pond . The cheerleaders from the University of Texas performed with great enthusiasm and many leaps…

Holy Spirit Reading Everyone reads the Bible differently from everyone else. Some read it critically; others seeking direction or guidance; still others for entertaining stories. Some read to disprove the Bible or at least parts of it, and others read it for the beauty of its metaphors and language. There is another kind of reading…

At the grocery store now many food items have as many as three prices listed . The first price is for strangers who shop without coupons or a store card. The second is for those with a card only, and the third is for those with both a card and a digital coupon.As I’m not…

Slowly paddling a canoe through a bed of water lilies is a sweet experience. Seeing the morning or late afternoon sun on the blossoms and flat leaves works in the imagination toward a quiet , precious beauty. You know that for centuries, probably millennia, such a beauty has touched the minds of countless others, and…

Catherine had been an army nurse during World War II when I met her late in her life. She had been present in Paris immediately following the liberation. She told of wearing her uniform in the city, and people stopping her to give her flowers or food gifts , thanking her and hugging her .…

On Monday all the stress and tension of weeks and weeks of dry heat was relieved in a night and a day of rain that brought almost eight inches of water to our rein gauge in a steady downpour. The temperature plummeted. It was as if the growing things sighed a sigh of release and…