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Today’s lesson scripture is from the Acts of the Apostles and it connects with this week’s lesson in a couple of ways that come to mind.  First, here’s today’s scripture: 17 ”And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through [...]

Danny pointed out an interesting news item from CNN yesterday.  At the end of a year of celebration of the 2,000th anniversary of the year of St. Paul’s birth scientists have conducted carbon-dating tests on the bone fragments contained in a sarcophagus in the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome.  Their conclusion:  that the fragments [...]

Psalm 50 is a psalm of judgment and therefore a psalm of decision.  It is a fitting way to begin the approach to this Sunday’s lesson scripture on the Ten Commandments.  Today, we focus only on the first six verses: 1 The mighty one, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of [...]

Good class today.  We’re going to miss Karen and Gary – but we know they’ll continue to be with us both in the class “blog” and in the daily readings from the books they gave class members. We’re going to miss Pam, too, as she embarks on her adventure in China this Summer.  Safe travels [...]

Listen to the Song of Moses after the absolute victory of God at the Red Sea (which is not the same as the “Song of Moses” in chapter 32 of Deuteronomy).  This is not only victory over Pharaoh and Egypt, but victory in the hearts of the people of Israel (however short-lived); it is a [...]

“Be still,” sings the Psalmist; “Keep still”, Moses said to the people of Israel by the shores of the sea.  But Moses said more than that:  “Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see . . .” Yesterday, we talked about the meaning of “being still” and giving over control to God, but this is [...]

In the last couple of years there’s been a fair amount of media attention regarding a phenomenon called “change blindness”, where - employing a technique involving a saccade - a photograph or video is altered, but our brain simply fails to process the change.  I’ve prepared a modest example above using Rembrandt’s famous painting, The Return of [...]

The lesson scripture from yesterday’s post ended with Moses telling the people of Israel to “keep still”, the LORD would fight for them.  In today’s lesson scripture we are told, “[B]e still, and know that I am God!”  What does it mean to be (or keep) “still”?  Well, let’s start by noting that two different [...]

Yesterday we looked at the first two scenes in what we might call the “Red Sea Narrative”.  In the first scene, God communicates with Moses, re-directing the people of Israel toward the Red Sea – and confrontation with Pharoah, stating that he will harden Pharaoh’s heart “so that I will gain glory for myself over [...]

Here’s one for Danny McKenzie, who created our “From the Choir Loft” category.   The lyrics were composed by Charles Wesley in 1739, based on verse 26 in the sixteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.  Here’s the 4th Stanza: Long my imprisoned sprit lay, fast bound in sin and nature’s night; thine eye diffused a quickening [...]