WHERE AND WHEN, BELOVED?

There's a special kind of warm fuzzy you get when you look into loving eyes of a friend or a relative that you haven't seen for a while. You hear their voices and a shimmy goes through your body, mind soul and spirit. Each new hug and the time you spend talking, laughing, eating, walking, swimming, barbecuing, watching weddings, attending wakes, standing sadly by gravesides; playing cards, ice skating, tobogganing, biking, laying on the beach; going downtown on the bus or the train to see a museum.

     Watching the lights change inside a fountain with the star-filled night sky overhead; ice fishing, fly fishing, fishing with worms, fishing with salmon roe; taking a plane ride, going out in the canoe, rowing across the lake, shooting the rapids in a kayak, in a raft; taking a Wendella boat ride, going to the Dells, going to Riverview, going to Santa's Village.

     Going to the Goodman Theater, going to the Opera House; going to the Blackstone Theater, eating at The French Quarter at the Palmer House, looking at the dioramas at the Chicago Historical Society, going to SecondCity and getting called up to try out an improv; going down into the Coal Mine at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, visiting the Thorne Miniature Rooms.

     The George Segal Sculptures; the Marc Chagall stained glass windows, the painting by Serat, "Sunday Afternoon on the Grande Jatte," the O'Keefe paintings, the support-less curved staircase, El Greco's "Ascension of the Virgin," Picasso's blue "Guitar Player" with the ghostly outline of Gloria Stein's figure underneath it; my favorite T'ang Dynasty tomb horse; admiring Rodin's sculptures. 

     Monet's, Manet's, Cassatt's, Van Gogh's impressionist, new-impressionist and modern paintings; seeing "American Gothic," taking time to look at the gorgeous intricate and amazing paper weights' seeing the eggs hatch; going on a tour of the U-505; enjoying the fish and other sea creatures in the Shedd Aquarium; marveling at the wonders of the universe in the Adler Planetarium; walking up and down the Magnificent Mile; taking a small train ride at Brookfield Zoo.

     Do you remember? Where else, Beloved?

     And, Beloved, how 'bout coming with me to The Garden of Eating, to the Eagle River Glacier, to the Mendenhall Glacier, to Mt Aleyska; hiking in the Chugach, watching the sunset near Capt Cook's statue where the decking for the Bicentenniel is.

     Fishing in hip waders in the Russian River, sledding at Hatcher's Pass; taking the train up to Denali National Park, down to Soldatno, over to Valdez, looking for whales' going to Fairbanks; going to North Pole, going to Talkeetna; going to the Alaska State Fair in Palmer.  

     Staying at the Captain Cook Hotel for Fur Rendezvous, going to the Miners' and Trappers' Ball, putting the mayor in a jail cell outside in ten below zero weather; going cross country skiing, going downhill skiing; visiting waterfalls, visiting very old Russian OrthOdox stave churches and brightly, colorfully decorated cemeteries with little picket fences around the graves; taking walks in the woods, carefully listening for bears.

     Flying to see The Katmai and the Land of Ten Thousand Smokes; driving up the the North Slope; watching herds of caribou walk by; watching mama moose with twin youngsters walk by' watching grizzly bears, black bears, brown bears fishing for salmon' eating berries; chasing after cubs; seeing Dall sheep; seeing wolves seeing ptarmigan. 

     Seeing the elephants in the Anchorage Zoo; seeing the polar bears playing with empty beer kegs in the water; looking for downed pilots from light planes near the Walrus Islands; seeing walruses plopping into the Gulf of Alaska off the Aleutians; going to Galena when it's 30 below zero' sixty below zero; high summer and it's 50 above zero. 

     Staying in old Alaskan Railroad sleeper cars forever stationary now outside one of the Demail National Park lodges; ice skating on the ice rink behind the grade school; having a picnic in the snow near the cabin of your work place on the back base.

     Watching F-15s take off; watching C-141s take off; watching helicopters take off; watching VSTOL aircraft take off; watching stealth bombers and fighters take off. 

     Watching the kids downhill races at the ski area on the back base . . .what else and where else?

     Just name it, Beloved . . . I'll do my best to meet you there.

     Or . . . Let's go down to the Capitol Mall and watch the runners go by, watch the tourists go by, watch the school kids going on field trips; watch the flocking pigeons; watch the squirrels; go to the American Indian Museum; go to the African American Museum.

     Go to see our congress members, our senators.

     Visit the National Gallery of Art, its East Wing, the American History Museum; the Air and Space Museum; the National archives' the Lincoln Memorial; the Jefferson Memorial; on a tour of the Capitol; to the White House; to the Museum of Women's Art; to the Smithsonian, to the National Zoo. 

     Go for a picnic in Rock Creek Park; up to the top of the Washington Monument; to the Viet Nam Veterans' Memorial; to the Korean War Veterans' Memorial; to the World War II Veterans Memorial.  

     Visit FDR's and Eleanor's Memorial; enjoy a hike and paddling in the Potomac on and just right off Teddy Roosevelt's Island.

     Go for a drive from the furthest north to Mt Vernon on the George Washington Parkway; to Baltimore on the Balt-Wash Parkway; up and down Sligo Creek Parkway.

   Worshipfully enjoy the National Cathedral; go to the Old Post Office; ride on a canal boat on the C&O Canal.  

     Go for on a hike on the Maryland side of the C&O Canal; go on a picnic overlooking Great Falls on the Virginia side of the park.  

     Drive up to Harpers Ferry; drive over to Jefferson's Monticello; drive out to the Appalachians.

     Go to a concert on the Mall; go to watch the fireworks on the 4th of July from the steps of the Capitol; go to visit the Smithsonian'S American Folklife Festival; go to see and hear  a concert outdoors at Wolftrap.

     Go to see a play at Kennedy Center; go to see a play at Ford's Theater, go to see a play at the Folger Shakespeare Theater; go to read some books at the Library of Congress.

     Go to see the Hope Diamond at the Museum of Natural History; go to visit the Asian and African Museums.

     Ride on the carousel on the Mall; ride on the carousel at Glen Echo Park.

     Go contra dancing at the Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo Park; drive up the parkway to Great Falls. 

     Or where else and when else, Beloved?

     Just let me know and I will do my best to be there . . .

     (And I didn't even get started with the places where I love to meet people to have a meal together . . . and I didn't even bring up DuPont Circle, Scott Circle, McPherson Square, Lafayette Park . . .!)

     Or. . . How 'bout The Golden State Bridge; The Presidio; Napa; Santa Barbara; LA; San Diego; Santa Cruz; Lompoc; Big Sur; riding a trolley riding a train; visiting Disneyland; visiting Knot's' Berry Farm; visiting fisherman's Wharf; taking a ferry to AngelsIsland; watching a Major League baseball game' surfing going to Hollywood.

     Or driving through the Redwood Forest; marveling at the Sequoia trees; camping at the foot of El Capitan; sailing on Crater Lake; driving up or down Hwy 101 along the Pacific; riding the roller coaster on the Santa Cruz Pier; fishing off the Huntington Beach Pier; going to the Back Bay in Costa Mesa; worshipping at Saddleback Church; driving to Vegas; playing in Vegas, but gently.

     How about taking a train along the southern route through Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas; taking the middle route on the train from the town east of San Francisco through Reno, through the Sierras, through Utah; through Salt Lake City.

     We could ride through Omaha; through the mesas, in to Grand Junction; through the Rockies; past Glenwood Springs, past the ski areas; along the Colorado River; along the Missouri River; through Colorado.

     Through Iowa to Chicago and then through Indiana, through Ohio, through Pennsylvania, in and out of West Virginia just a little bit, along the Potomac through Maryland down to D.C.

     Or up the very busy Eastern Corridor from D.C through Maryland, through Delaware, through Rhode Island, through Connecticut, across the Chesapeake, across the Susquehanna; up into New York. 

     Through to Boston . . . Up to New Hampshire, up to Maine . . . Oh so many beautiful places, oh so many interesting people from all over our land, from all over the world . . .!

     What do you say, Beloved? Where else and when else? Just let me know and I will do my best to join you!

     Do you remember? Where else, Beloved?

     I'll do my best to meet you wherever and whenever. 

LITTLE BROTHERS AND OTHER MEMORIES OF AUTUMN

The first time I saw him, he was seven years old, tow-headed shock of hair, pencil in his left fist, laying on his stomach in the foyer of their house that was a converted stable. He was drawing a picture of a horse that rivaled Leonardo's sketches of the bronze stallion that was cast from cannons and turned back into cannons. I was amazed that a child could capture a live creature so vividly.

"Scott. This is my friend Kathy," Leslie spoke loudly to break into his creative reverie.

The towhead looked up and smiled and quietly sais, "Hi," with a grave seriousness before bending his head back down in concentration to continue bringing the steed to paper-life on the drawing pad. He was seven years old.

Then a flash of brown hair and a lithe frame leaped down broad entryway staircase and brushed past us.

"Stop and say 'Hi,' to my friend Kathy, Brian." The 10 year old elfin face with glasses and an impish grin mischievously mimicked his his sister and I laughed.

"Hi, Brian," I giggled as he opened the front door and charged out to his bicycle to ride up and down the asphalt hills around Grassy Lake as his sister called after him, "We are kid-sitting you and Scotty, so be sure you are home when you see the front lantern lit.

The He wind snatched away his, "Sure, sure, sure, Les, I will if I see it," but we hoped he had heard and acquiesced.

My dad had driven me the two and a half miles from our house on the lake to Leslie's house in another small lake community for the first time. Leslie and I had met in our fifth grade classroom several weeks before this sleepover that was also a kid-sitting assignment.

Leslie came closer to me and whispered, "Mike and David and a few other boys rode by on their bikes just as mom and dad were backing out of the driveway. Dad almost hit one of them on a red bike with a white banana seat with streamers and tassles. It might have been Jamie "

"Wow! Realy? What time is everyone else coming over?'

It was 6:30 pm, and Leslie had just finished giving the boys a supper of grilled cheese sandwiches and Campbell's Tomato Soup. Since the fallen autumn oak and elm and other leaves from deciduous trees were raked into small hills neatly spaced around the front, back and side yards. You couldn't say "lawns" because they lived on the edge of a wood.

The boys' rewards for cleaning their plates were caramel apples direct that afternoon from Mosley Bell's Apple Orchard Fruit Stand a mile and a half away down Rte 22 where the road intersected with Rte 12, the conduit between Chicago, Illinois and Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Many more towns and cities from the U.S. Canadian border to the far northwest and to the Atlantic Ocean in the far southeast.

Six weeks earlier, the first Tuesday after the first Monday of September that followed the first Sunday in September that was also Labor Day, I had been delighted to walk into my Fifth Grade Classroom in North Barrington Elementary School.

The bid windows all along the eastern wall of the classroom were almost half as tall as the wall itself. Bright morning sunlight streamed into the room and washed out the various shades of green as the scene beyond the school grounds gave way to mossy hills, scattered woods, the white boards of paddock fences and the horizon bathed in light. A red barn alongside a modern single-floored stone house could be seen just this side of the visible horizon.

Since the first day of school a year before this, I had known that the stone house was lived in by Carol and her family and in the red barn and adjoining paddock lived Carol's red Shetland pony, Holly, with white blaze on her fore-face, white main, white tail and white "knee socks" visible above her hooves on each leg.

Carol was my first friend who did not live in Tower Lakes, our community. You had to cross Illinois Rte 59 and go straight east a country mile and a half on Indian Trail until you reached Arrowhead Lane And turned right, going straight south. About a mile and a half up and down the undulating asphalt of the curving Arrowhead Lane was Carol's house.

Then Arrowhead Lane dead-ended into Miller Road and After you had turned left, heading east again, you could turn right into any of five roads that led into the community called "Biltmore" on Grassy Lake.

This was the lake community of families with fathers who for the most part made a lot more money than most of the fathers in Tower Lakes. The Biltmore fathers were airline pilots, lawyers, stock brokers and/or people who had grown up with and continued to have access to trust funds.

As the colors of the sky changed from the deep blue of harvest time to pinks and reds and oranges and the purple dusk began to enfold the woods and Lakes, the grand great orange hunters' moon peaked over the trees in the woods on the western horizon, occluded by each forested hillside.

On that first day of Fifth Grade six weeks before, the kids were taking up their places in a different formation than they had ever seen. Instead of single modern desks and unconnected student chairs, there were tables that three students could comfortbly sit at.

Our bus had been the last one to arrive t the school that morning. Out of it had poured kindergarteners; primary school first, second and third graders; intermediate students for fourth, fifth and six graders; and the junior high-aged seventh and eighth graders, although at the time they were not called that.

We stepped up two long steps into the building, walked through the corridor separating the primary school classrooms. If we were lucky, Dr. Kishkunas, our principal, was not scowling at us from the doorway of the school office at the north end of the Primary Class Hall.

Those of us who no longer belonged in the primary hall classrooms zigged left and then right just before we would have been able to go into the gymnasium that also had folding lunch tables with benches that came out of cabinets along the far wall.

This was taken care of by our janitor and our lunch lady. And it happened about an hour before our lunchtime when the kindergarteners has a snack of graham crackers and that ever-so weak orange juice or a carton of milk with that dairy cow, Daisy, drawn on the sides off the small boxes with lids that looked like roofs.

When empty, those cartons became piggy banks covered with construction paper under the careful instructions and remonstrance of our wonderful but elderly art teacher, Mrs. Palmer. They were used to collect donations for the children still starving in Europe.

And at Halloween they were covered with orange construction paper on which we drew full moons and pumpkins, witches hats and broomsticks and while we eagerly took handfuls of candy from bowls or were given home made very sticky popcorn balls or caramel apples, we said, "Trick or Treat for UNICEF'". And the moms and dads who were our neighbors, or the little children who were too young to go out after dark put pennies, mostly, but also nickels, dimes, quarters, half dollars or dollars until the little house-shaped banks were heavier than our paper bags or pillow cases full of candy.

We begged whatever adults stood near the curbs of the streets of our communities to hold the full or nearly full UNICEF receptacles. Or they put them in red wagons or strollers or fancy baby buggies with huge wheels and springs that 17th century stagecoachers would have been proud to boast about while transporting people heading out to the Wild, Wild West. So the UNICEF containers were placed inside wagons and strollers and baby buggies . . . and even in some wheel barrows where infants or toddlers sat or laid down, awake or asleep, silent or wailing because they were too little to go to the doors of our neighbors houses.

And one parent, or grandparent or even an aunt or an uncle, a babysitter or kid sitter or neighbor had to hold the fort at the house they called home so that no mischievous kids would trick the house or the people in the house upon finding no candy or inferior treats.

Seems like I might have lost track of so,thing.

PLease let me get back to you sometime tomorrow, Beloved. It is almost 3:30 am and Dad has on,y been asleep for about twenty-two minutes.

Okay?

Thanks so much. 😊👌🌌🌈🎆🌊🌊🐋🌊🌺❤💕👌😊😎

HE WILL NOT BREAK A BRUISED REED

HE WILL NOT BREAK A BRUISED REED

Sometimes when I am tired or not feeling well, I will say something out of grumpiness to one of my grandkids. Or when I have been helping to take care of Dad, I will get angry with him because I hadn't gotten more than 2 1/2 to 4 hours of sleep at a stretch. As quickly as I can, I will apologize and confess my sin to God.  I will do what I can to make it up to the person I love whom I have hurt.

In those moments I feel so ashamed of my self and I know that the Holy Spirit is lifting up a mirror to my face. In the mirror I do not see myself as if I was created in the image of God -- Love, Light, Life as we know Jesus is when we have given God in Christ Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit to reveal LOVE LIFE LIGHT to us.  

This is a description of God's Suffering Servant as was written down by the Prophet Isaiah 700 years before God became enfleshed, born as Jesus of Nazareth in what we call Isaiah Chapter 42, Verses 1-4:

"Behold my servant, whom I uphold,

my chosen, in whom my soul delights;

I have put my Spirit upon him,

he will bring forth justice to the nations.

He will not cry or lift up his voice,

or make it heard in the street;

a bruised reed he will not break,

and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;

he will faithfully bring forth justice.

He will not fail or be discouraged

till he has established justice in the earth;

and the coastlands wait for his law." [Isaiah 42:1-4 (RSV)]

The image of the wonderful man who serves God rings down over the centuries as people who suffer yearn for the peace, righteousness, justice, mercy, love and grace.  In the midst of hunger, cruelty, death, homelessness, oppression, illness, and slavery, they hope for rescue.  They hope for the power of God to break into the darkness, war, cruelty and suffering.  They long for liberation.  They hope to be able to have a roof over their heads.  They want to feed and clothe their starving children.  They want to be able to work at a profession they have always dreamed about.  They want to be free to live as God Who Is Love wants every human being to live.

Beyond the descriptions of the Chosen One of God, the Christ--the Messiah, God Incarnate as Jesus Christ, the Suffering Servant, Redeemer and King of Kings, those of us who believe understand a reality.  The Fullness of God's Reign on Earth has been established, but there is still evil.  

It is like the time at the end of a war when bands of enemy soldiers have not heard the war is over and continue to kill, rape, rob and destroy.  Or maybe they have heard but continue to pillage and enslave because no one is there to forcibly stop them.

Because God came to live on Earth as Jesus, the Herald Angels declared that Peace which is wholeness--no sickness, no hunger, no subjugation, no imprisonment; all opportunities for each person to have homes, jobs that fulfill their dreams, food, clothing, the joy of living in loving communities with relatives and friends--had been established on Earth.  Then Jesus as a helpless baby boy; as a young Jewish boy learning the Torah, learning from his father, helping his mother and his neighbors, playing with his friends; as a young man coming to be called into the community of the men who were the teachers of the Law; as the anointed one of God coming to John the Baptist to initiate his ministry. 

Then Jesus went out into the wilderness by the power of the Holy Spirit to commune with His Father in Heaven.

At that point Jesus was challenged and tempted by the Evil One -- the Prosecutor. He defeated the Tempter, the Liar, the Enslaver.  

And then Jesus went back into the company of people to draw students to his side, to demonstrate exactly how much God the Creator loves each individual person on Earth from the past, in the present and forever and ever into the future.  

Jesus taught, performed miracles which were the signs that He came fro God His Father in Heaven.  Jesus suffered for the sins of all human beings beginning with the first human beings.  Through His life, His teaching, His suffering, His death and His resurrection, Jesus brought and continually brings redemption to all people, to all the creatures of the Earth, and He brings wholeness to all of Creation that has been damaged by the disobedience of the first human beings and by every other human being who has ever lived, who are living, and who will live here on Earth.

So beyond being made over into the image of God in Jesus Christ, just because there are still those marauding soldiers of evil, we must be prepared to fight.  We should believe in the Lord Jesus all make up the Body of Christ on Earth by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the Letter of St. Paul to the believers in Ephesus, he tells them that they need to have on the Armor of God:

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 

For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 

Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 

Stand, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, 

and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 

and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; 

besides all these, 

taking the shield of faith, 

with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. 

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 

Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. 

To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 

and also for me, that utterance may be given me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak." [Ephesians 6:10-20 (RSV)]

As we read that passage, we can understand that St. Paul is proclaiming that the ground on which we stand is no longer subject to the Evil One.  We are in Christ, clothed in His Grace with access to all of His power.  

We are able to wield the most powerful weapon -- the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.  We belong to Jesus Christ and we have in the Armor of God just as Roman soldiers had on Armor before they went into battle.

We have placed protection over our most essential parts by covering our loins with truth.  We have on the breastplate of God's righteousness to cover our heart and our lungs and all our main organs in the middle part of our bodies. Our feet are not bare, but as shoes we move ahead or stand firm because the Gospel of Peace protects them.  And our minds and heads are protected by the helmet of salvation of God in Jesus Christ.

Our defensive weapon is the Shield of Faith that quenches the flaming arrows of the Evil One.  And we have learned how to use the offensive weapon, the Sword of the Spirit, because we speak the words of God in Jesus Christ by His authority.

In Rev Dr. Lloyd Ogilvie's book on Ephesians called "Let God Love You," he emphasizes that St. Paul makes clear to the Ephesians and to us that we have been charged with keeping the Holy Ground that has been won by Jesus Christ.  

We are blessed to be charged with proclaiming the Good News of God's Grace in Jesus Christ.  

We are honored to be Jesus' hands and feet, His voice, His eyes, His ears and His mouth.

If you know the Lord, you know all this.  I just wanted to remind you and to encourage you.

If you don't know the, Lord, I hope you will allow someone to introduce him to you.  God loves you and wants to take care of you and bless you.  All you need to do is to open the door to your heart.

REMEMBERING DR. LAURENCE HULL STOOKEY

During the first Year at WTS, I worked full-time in the Development Office for David McW, and Dr. Logan's and Dr. Stookey's offices were nearby and they often stopped in to chat, or I visited them. Was able to take two classes per semester for free because I worked there full-time.  I took three different courses with Dr. Stookey and got my MDiv in Urban Ministry which meant there was special recognition for the places where we were interns for the Urban Ministry Track, and then I had to go up in the two different groups from the opposite sides of the Nave at National Presbyterian Church. I got an MTS in Ethics and Public Policy, too . . . and I was in the choir.  

So when Dr Stookey was setting up the flow of how everyone came up to receive our diplomas, or standing with Charlie Parker and others from Bread for the City/Zachary's Free Clinic where I interned in Urban Ministry, or moved over to where the choir sang, he had to keep track of where I needed to be sitting or standing or moving and how to get me to do that without too much fuss and mess.  

Dr Stookey was so funny when he was explaining how it was going to work, and he was teasing me about it. Also loved the photos he took of New Zealand that are in the hallway near the entrance to the Chapel Balcony.  We have all been blessed by our professors and the staff at WTS.  

After working there full-time for a year while living in Falls Church, my son and I moved into an apartment on campus where I lived for four years when he was finishing high school and where my daughter came home when she was in college.  

During the summer of '93, I spent the summer participating in A Christian Ministry in the National Parks at Mt Rainier National Park.  And Krista and Tom lived by themselves in our apartment on campus. Tom worked in the buildings and on the grounds and Krista worked as a placement officer in a temp agency in downtown DC, and as a waitress in a restaurant in Georgetown. 


So that was very special that the professors and staff members got to know my kids, too.  Because they lived with their dad and stepmother for several years when I was first in DC/noVA/MD, not that many of my adult friends knew my kids.  And since leaving for college when I was 17 1/2, the four years I lived on the WTS campus was the longest period of time I lived in any one house or apartment or dormitory.  God is so good and so faithful! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

PLEASE STOP BEING SO JUDGMENTAL AND CONDEMNING

I was very sad to see a quote from a conservative evangelical leader when he called President Obama and Hillary Clinton "godless progressives".

"Godless"!??!

"Godless" for wanting to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, liberate the imprisons, rescue the oppressed, give peace, security and opportunity to people in need?

THAT is exactly what God in Christ did and requires us to do. God's mercy exceeds His righteousness.

Jesus came in part to say to the religious and political hierarchy of the time when He walked the earth that they had no right to exclude anyone from the presence of God. He said and demonstrated that God does not want us to say, "Go away, you don't belong in our community and you can't worship our God in our Temple."

Jesus came to take away everything that separates people fromGod in any way. The Body of Christ is not some club that you have to look a certain way, act a certain way and be improved by a group of people who think they have the right to lock people out or kick people out.

There re are people who are dying because we don't work hard enough to make sure they have a roof over their heads, food in their tables, peace and opportunity to work and to live in the company of loving people. After the revelation given to Peter in Acts that showed him it was no longer necessary to obey the dietary laws and that God has opened the doors of His house and the doors of His heart to every human being, (in Acts 10:34-360 he said, "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all"

Conservative judgmental is just makes me sad . . . and weary. I love many people who think that way, believe that way, but I don't love what they think, how they act, or what they say. We all need to stop being judgmental and condemning. We all need to respect and honor one another in the Name of the One who loves us all, who demonstrated God's love and the tearing down of the barriers, and then defeated slavery to sin and death; defeated evil; and redeemed all of creation.

But you don't have to accept God's offer of love, peace, mercy, grace, joy and blessings.

Or or you can receive it.

You can can receive the love of the Creator of the Universe and at that moment you will be changed from someone who exists to someone who is fully, completely, absolutely and eternally alive, loved and cherished.

Jesus and His Father stand at the door. Of your heart, gently knocking and hoping you will ask them to come in. God in Christ loves you by the power of the Holy Spirit whether you ever agree to receive that love, grace, mercy, joy and faithfulness.

But please give God a chance to show you how much He loves you, Beloved.

Please ask Jesus into your heart so that His Holy Spirit can prove everything you need to know.

You are cherished, beloved, adored, blessed and provided for more than you can even imagine. If you know that already, I am so happy for you. But there is always a deeper level of love.

And if you haven't decided to give God a chance, there are such gifts waiting for you. Please give God a chance.

❤❤❤

ON THE APPROACH OF YOM KIPPUR

I am praying for and thinking of my Jewish friends as they continue to celebrate their new year and approach Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the most sacred of all holy days, when it is possible to totally give us ever single barrier that keeps us from beI got close to G-d, the Creator, the Be-All and End-All of Love and Light and Life.

As ever, my prayer is that each one of them and every other person on Earth will come to know truly and completely that God Who Is Love, the Creator of the Universe, in Whom we live and move and have our being is also the Lord Jesus Christ, the one and only begotten Son of God, and the Logos, the creative Word by which and with which all that exists, seen and unseen has. One into being; and also the Holy Soirit; the Truth, the Comforter, the One Who accompanies us, guards, guides and sustains us in the Fullness of Love and Light and Life.

Only the Holy Spirit can reveal the way G-d loves each person in the way that person needs to know in order to believe and receive he that love and life and light and truth that already belongs to each person just because God loves each one.

The most important reality any one of us can come to know within our hearts is that when Jesus died on the cross, the fulfillment of atonement between human beings and the Creator was fulfilled once and for all. And this was God's plan before any of Creation came into being. No one can talk anyone else into believing this. It comes only as a gift for the Holy Spirit, taken in by a willing heart.

Glory to God in the highest!! Alleluia! Amen and amen.

❤❤❤