Originally published on Once Dead, Now Alive.

Thought-provoking books challenge me to think outside the box, sometimes out of my comfort zone. After reading “Red Moon Rising: How 24-7 Prayer is Awakening a Generation” by Pete Greig, I had the chance to participate in a week long event of 24-7 prayer at the church I attend (link).
There, rooms were available for people to pray/connect with/worship
God. One room had available clay and other art materials; the intent
was to encourage creativity, using the supplies as an expression of
worship or as response to God’s presence.

I am not an “art
person”–even to step into that room WAS a step outside the box. I took
some wet clay and pressed it onto a piece of paper, the result a brown
splotch. Almost immediately I thought about Genesis 2:7 and myself being made of the dust of the earth. Then I began to write:

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Originally published in They Hang Like Paper Lanterns.

The drops weave together daily,
their fibrous web,
and bind me in this sticky love.
I trip upon my own heart strings.

They shoot me full of adrenaline, then entangle me, gag me, rob me
Leaving me to finish off what’s left of myself.
Heart racing, eyes bulging; wet, salty and gasping.
Wishing, perhaps, they’d completed their aim this time.
Please stop toying with me and end it.
(Then thinking that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.)

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Originally posted in L’Chaim.

The sunlight sparkles on the water, speckles the path, and dances with the trees. I sit on a log bench and meditate on the memory verse for my Bible study:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all things,
whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, whether principalities or powers – all things were created through him and for him. He himself is before all things and all things are held together in him.

All of this has been created by him, through him, and for him.

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Originally posted on PENSIEVE.

You would think becoming intimately acquainted with Jesus–getting to know Him, learning to love Him–is as simple as reading the Bible’s four gospels.

Until you read them back to back, and on the surface, see four portraits of the same man. Four very different portraits of the same man.

Because I never before read all four gospels in succession, a while back it occurred to me that immersing myself in these “biographies” would give me a clearer picture of Jesus. Rather than read them in the order they appear in Scripture (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), I read them John, Mark, Luke, Matthew; random, yes, but going from John to Mark paints a p.r.e.t.t.y. interesting picture.

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