Jesus and Me ... and the Cats

The country will look like pine and oak forest with every tree cut down— Every tree a stump, a huge field of stumps. But there's a holy seed in those stumps."                                   Isaiah 6:13, THE MESSAGE "As soon as Babylon's seventy years are up and not a day before, I'll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. 12 "When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I'll listen. 13-14 "When you come looking for me, you'll find me. "Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I'll make sure you won't be disappointed."                                Jeremiah 29:10-14a, THE MESSAGE When I was in middle school, my parents bought my grandparent's farmstead.  The front yard was shaded by tall trees my g

Mark 4:35-41 Romans 8:18-28 It was like no other storm many of us had ever experienced, even those of us who have been through tornados.  We went to bed on Sunday night with our world looking one way and woke up on Monday morning to an almost alien landscape and a natural disaster to deal with. In the Gospel of Mark, we read the story of another terrible storm.  It was not uncommon for sudden storms to roll down the hills surrounding the Sea of Galillee, picking up speed and strength as they went until they hit the Sea with hurricane force winds. It was a terrifying experience.  The wind shrieked through shredded sails as rigging snapped.  The storm whipped up huge waves that quickly filled the boats.  Lightening flashed; men shouted in terror. And where was Jesus?  The men found Jesus asleep on a cushion in the stern of one of the boats.  "Teacher, don't you care that we're all going to drown?!?!?" This last week, a little boy looked at the flattened corn

Romans 8:31-39 Some of my church folks and I were standing around talking at a wedding reception.  In a year that seemed to be centered around death, it was good to be present at an event that marked a new beginning, that celebrated life.  One of the guys is a farmer, and I asked if I could come help during calving time.  He was surprised, but he understood my need to experience birth and life for a change. Without doubt, death is part of the human experience, whether it's the end of physical life and relationships or it's the multitude of lesser deaths that are just givens in life.  They are losses and changes in our lives, like the loss of a job or our health or a broken relationship.  There's the lesser death, the loss of hope and a future that comes with tragedy as a flood or storm sweeps away our lives as we know them, or we are forced to sacrifice our dreams and plans when unforeseen circumstances throw up roadblocks in our life path.  But does death get to have

FREEDOM THROUGH CHRIST, Part 1 Matthew 11:28-30 Romans 7:15-25a Do you ever have days when you feel like a werewolf? Yes, I said werewolf – that creature of folk lore and popular books, movies, and even television programs. A werewolf is usually an ordinary person who is under a curse or is bitten by another werewolf. This person, who may be a decent, law abiding citizen is changed into an evil, destructive beast during the three days of the full moon. The person may hate what he or she becomes and does, but the curse has enslaved them. We all have had those experiences where we do something we really shouldn't do, but we loose our self-control and do them anyway.  It's like when those last two pieces of pizza in the 'fridge' call my name just as I'm heading up to bed. I know I shouldn't eat them, I know I'll regret it, but I go ahead and eat them anyway. Then, at around 2:00 in the morning, my protesting stomach wakes me up. Or, Tom has said