In preparing to write this devotion, I checked the lectionary selections for this week and was led to Chapter 5 of the Book of Revelation. The bold imagery pulled me in and I read more. The scene where St. John describes his vision of the Lamb that was slain, standing amid the four fantastic creatures and the twenty-four elders captured my imagination. He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had…
Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40Today I am focusing on the “mind” part of this verse as that is, in my opinion, where it all begins; even though it is listed last. Our desires begin there.There was…
“Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.” Psalm 141: 2 Almost all the evening prayers service I’ve either led or attended have included this verse. Some churches have even gone so far as to actually burn it as the service was unfolding. It was and is a symbol of our prayers metaphorically rising to God to be heard. Today as I write these words we are surrounded by smoke; our…
It’s been 19 years since the attacks on the World Trade Center (September 11, 2001) and 40 years since Mount St. Helens erupted (May 18, 1980). Pictured are two vials of ash—one from each event, along with a missing person flyer given to me by the family of Tonyell McDay, who perished in the explosion of World Trade Tower 1. My life and career came close to both disasters. I was preaching at Our Savior’s Lutheran in Sunnyside, WA that day in May 1980…
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