The name of the LORD is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe (Proverbs 18:10). While we are climbing our way out of this current global storm, Jehovah Shalom is able to give us calm and strength because PEACE is who He is!
Category: Shabbat Shalom
Shabbat Shalom: What In God’s Name?! [with audio]
The name of the LORD is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe (Proverbs 18:10). His name, Jehovah, denotes the God who reveals Himself unceasingly.
Shabbat Shalom: New Year—New Thing [with audio]
PLAY👆to listen as you read along Some times it feels unreal, but we’ve actually been hunkered down for almost two years. Can you believe it?! Just about every aspect of our lives have been constrained and in some instances crippled by an infectious agent that is so small it requires a microscope to visualize it. …
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Shabbat Shalom: Making Peace With Your Present [with audio]
Hi Everyone. Sharing this week’s Shabbat Shalom post a day early should in case you’ll be enjoying Christmas celebrations too much to be on WordPress 😊
Shabbat Shalom: Be Still [a poem]
Imagine a conversation with God about being still when all around you is in chaos. This piece is such a conversation.
Shabbat Shalom: You’ve Got It All Wrong
👆PLAY👆to listen as you read along Dear Human, You've got it all wrong. You didn't come here to master unconditional love. This is where you came from and where you'll return. You came here to learn personal love.Universal love.Messy love.Sweaty love.Crazy love.Whole love.Infused with divinity.Lived through the grace of stumbling.Demonstrated through the beauty of ... …
Shabbat Shalom: You’ve Got It All Wrong [with audio]
👆PLAY👆to listen as you read along Dear Human, You've got it all wrong. You didn't come here to master unconditional love. This is where you came from and where you'll return. You came here to learn personal love.Universal love.Messy love.Sweaty love.Crazy love.Whole love.Infused with divinity.Lived through the grace of stumbling.Demonstrated through the beauty of ... …
Continue reading Shabbat Shalom: You’ve Got It All Wrong [with audio]
Shabbat Shalom: Tears’ Voice & Harvest [with audio]
👆PLAY👆to listen as you read along Tears have a voice. Whether tears are as a consequence of joy or sorrow, they speak volumes—even more than words can say. As I mentioned in last week’s Shabbat Shalom post, I was writing it from my own heart experience. What I didn’t say was that it was written …
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Shabbat Shalom: …comma-but-God Moments
👆PLAY👆to listen as you read along At a concert a couple years ago I bought a tee-shirt that read: “…but God”. I was drawn to it because I’ve always been fascinated with the power associated with that two-word combo in the Bible. It’s such a compelling combination that you’ll often hear folks use it as …
Shabbat Shalom: Heaven’s Grocery Store [with audio]
👆PLAY👆to listen as you read along Today’s Shabbat Shalom post is a poem I used to recite as a child which crossed my path again this week. Stroll with me through heaven’s grocery store. As I was walking down life's highwayA long, long time agoOne day I came upon a sign that read“Heaven’s Grocery Store” …
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Shabbat Shalom: Name-Changer God [with audio]
👆PLAY👆to listen as you read along For today’s Shabbat Shalom post we’ll talk about God as name changer. One of the reasons why I love God is that He is a doer of astoundingly-great things. One of those exceptional things He does is to change names. Throughout the Bible there are examples of God’s name-changing …
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Shabbat Shalom: Wholeness is Worship [with audio]
👆PLAY👆to listen as you read along For today’s Shabbat Shalom post the focus will be the wholeness in worship. And I’ll explain it using an ancient story told in the Bible in the book of St. Luke, the 17th chapter. One day Jesus was passing through a town and came across ten men who were …
Continue reading Shabbat Shalom: Wholeness is Worship [with audio]
Shabbat Shalom: Haunted Heart [with audio]
👆PLAY👆to listen as you read along When you think about haunting, what are some thoughts that first come to mind? Spooky? Eerie? Ghostly? How about darkness? When I think about haunting, darkness is what first comes to my mind. The most basic definition of darkness is the absence of light. Darkness and dark places also …
Shabbat Shalom: God’s Art to heART
👆Play👆to listen along as you read ART to heART is more than a homophone. It’s a life-changing salvific principle used in the recreative-poetic expression of God. The Greek word poiēma is used ONLY TWICE in the Bible and both times in reference to the creative power of God. First, when He created eARTh referred to …
Shabbat Shalom: You’re A Masterpiece—God’s Work of Art [with audio]
👆Play👆to listen along as you read God is a master artist, a genius creator. When He created eARTh, He built ART into every nook and cranny of it. And as beautiful and majestic and wonderful as the ART He created in eARTh was, at its completion God pronounced it as merely “good”. Genesis 1:10, 12 …
Continue reading Shabbat Shalom: You’re A Masterpiece—God’s Work of Art [with audio]
Shabbat Shalom: God Knows Your Name [with audio]
👆PLAY👆 and listen along while you read God is passionate about you because God is passionate about God. OK … hold on. Before you think I’m saying God is egotistic, because that He is not, let me expound. God knows who He is. In response to Moses’ question: “Who should I say you are?”, God …
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Shabbat Shalom: Sun/Son & Shadows
👆PLAY👆You may listen and read along Shadow is mentioned quite frequently in the Bible, and usually in the context of God's protective presence. Like: being covered with the shadow of God’s hand (Isaiah 51:16); resting in the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91:1); being hidden in the shadow of God’s wings (Psalms 17:8); or walking …
Shabbat Shalom—Be Like A Tree© [with audio]
👆LISTEN👆as you read along As we’re winding down the season of long summer days and about to enter the season of transition, I’m thinking about trees and the transformation they’re preparing to undergo—the stripping, the letting go—and how simultaneously beautiful and haunting that is. And that got me thinking about the life lessons we can …
Continue reading Shabbat Shalom—Be Like A Tree© [with audio]
Shabbat Shalom: Of Lives Lost & Longing
Before-word: for today’s Shabbat Shalom celebration, sharing a piece commissioned by my church as a tribute to our members who’ve passed on as part of our 50th anniversary celebration. I did not want a macabre presentation, but rather one filled with hopeful anticipation. Using the abecedarian poetry form, I chronicled our beginning; the joys of …
Shabbat Shalom: Of High Sabbaths & Sacrifice
Before-word: This epic poem is a parallelism of the Abrahamic and the Messianic sacrifice experiences. Abraham’s would-be sacrifice of Isaac was a foreshadow of the crucifixion of Christ. The sacrifice of Christ was a symbolism of high sabbaths (John 19:31) as the complete story of salvation—that is, the work of Christ beginning with His death …
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Shabbat Shalom—Soul Cry: Hiraeth! [with audio]
Hiraeth: “A deep homesickness; an intense form of longing or nostalgia; an unaccountable homesickness for a place you have never visited”. 👆LISTEN👆WHILE YOU READ ALONG Hiraeth! Hiraeth! Something irretrievably lost, beckons Beckons my soul from deep Deep within, this unexplainable, unattainable longing Longing—intense yearning, reminiscing for a place A place I’ve never been but somehow …
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Shabbat Shalom: Sabbath, A Time-Tithe
Sabbath is a tithing of our time. Okay—having put that out there, let me explain: Sabbath and tithing are two biblical principles. Both appear paradoxical or self-contradictory on the surface. And, both are associated with blessings. Paradoxical and a blessing? How? Both are based on you giving up a portion of what you have a …
Shabbat Shalom: Rest in Stillness
I’m a big fan of David. The David of the Bible. Yes, that prolific spoken word artist who was also a master harpist, a warrior King and a murderous adulterer. So bloody were the hands of David from warding off assailants while he fled a jealous crazed king and from wars he waged to secure …
Shabbat Shalom: Why I am A Christian
I came across 12 Bloggerz! hosted by Rory. Rory you asked 12 great questions but one really jumped out at me. So, I’ll answer only that one because it aligned so strongly to something that is integral to who I am—my faith and being a Christian. This is the question: How would you feel if …
Shabbat Shalom: God Started It, Science Confirms It
Before I understood the true meaning and the blessings of the Sabbath, it was more like an arduous religious ritual observance. And as an adolescent, I recall at the end of just about every Sabbath I came down with a terrible migraine headache. Research on the anthropology and psychology of religion have confirmed the psychological …
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Shabbat Shalom: Grace
In addition to—the tranquility of Sabbath peace; the blessings of Sabbath worship; the refreshing of Sabbath rest; those Selah moments of pause like mini-Sabbaths that can be taken throughout the week; and the joy of Sabbath reflection—is the affirmation of GRACE. We know that God established Sabbath as a day of rest at the end …
Shabbat Shalom: Reflection
In addition to—the tranquility of Sabbath peace; the blessings of Sabbath worship; the refreshing of Sabbath rest; and those Selah moments of pause like mini-Sabbaths that can be taken throughout the week—is the joy of Sabbath reflection. Sabbath is a time of reflection. Many people tend to think of Sabbath as merely a command given …
Shabbat Shalom: Fellowship
I previously wrote about attributes that Sabbath affords us—the tranquility of Sabbath peace; the blessings of Sabbath worship; the refreshing of Sabbath rest; and those Selah moments of pause that we can take throughout the days that are like mini-Sabbaths. This post is about another facet of Sabbath, fellowship. One of the things I miss …
Shabbat Shalom: Worship
God started it! Sabbath is for rest and it’s also for worship. Standing on the bank of the river transfixed, in awe of all creation bustling around me. Watching the sun go down, but not before it colored the clouds an autumn orange and the river a golden glimmering tint. Hearing the geese honking, hissing …
Shabbat Shalom: Selah! [with audio]
👆LISTEN👆as you read along Selah! This may be the most mysterious word in the Bible. It appears at the end of verses primarily in the books of Psalms and Habakkuk. There’s no one definition but all may be summed up to be interpreted as: “stop and listen”, or “pause and consider”, or “contemplate, reflect and …
Shabbat Shalom: Rest Is Power
God Shabbat. Yes, God rested. He showed us rest before he “commanded” it. His rest is power. He invites us to remember: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy”, He says. He goes on to explain that He wants for us to work throughout the remaining 6 days like He did when He created …
Shabbat Shalom: Peace
“Peace I leave with you; My [perfect] peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid.” St John 14:27 (Holy Bible) I took this photo last night as the sun was setting, ushering in another Sabbath. And …
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