Verba Sparsa

How to pray for government leaders: a biblical model (Psalm 72)
Talk to God. Praise God ALONE. Prayer for the leader is focused on the leader’s serving the good of the poor of your people.

Who is the “you” in “fret not yourself” (Psalm 37) ?
To cover complacency, inaction, and complicity in injustice by appropriating to oneself the “Fret not” that was spoken to someone else is bad faith.

You, me, them: the moral mindset of Psalm 26
Worship and prayer depend on a certain self-location vis-à-vis the divine “You” and the profane “they/them.” In the attached display of the ESV text of Psalm 26 I have used blue highlighting for the divine “You,” green for the worshipful and morally resolute “I,” and yellow for the profane “they/them.” It would be a mistakeContinue reading “You, me, them: the moral mindset of Psalm 26”

Orla in 2008
Today, April 3, 2021, our beloved Irish Terrier, Orla, died. I’m consoling myself by digging through old photographs. This post has pics from 2008, the year Orla came to live with us.

Getting vaccinated in Grand Rapids
It is encouraging to see what people can do with unity in mission. I am so grateful. I am also uneasy. How will we perpetuate the yes, share the yes?

Where we are politically in the USA, and where I am
Trump lost the election, which has bought us some time. But Trump has not stopped claiming that he won, GOP senators and reps and apparatchiks have not repudiated him, and neither have the millions who voted for him. The lower-IQ Trumpists still speak of him as the best thing ever. The higher-IQ Trumpists still pretendContinue reading “Where we are politically in the USA, and where I am”

The most important thing we can say to each other (Psalm 95)
What is the one thing that we human beings can habitually say to each other in order to stand our best chance of fulfilling our telos as human beings?

Seeing the glory (Luke 9:28–36)
We have to make the same decision, on the basis of the same physical evidence, that the ancients had to make. And closely related is our decision about how to read the Bible.

How to know if you are a demon (Luke 8:26–39)
It can be hard to knowif you are a demon butyou can watch for telltale signs. If the person you inhabitwears no clothes but goes aboutfully exposed—each body partor even more embarrassinglyevery soul and spirit partplainly visible to all around,unseen only by himself—then you might be a demon. And if the person you inhabithas noContinue reading “How to know if you are a demon (Luke 8:26–39)”

Why doesn’t reasoning (with people) work?
What is wrong with their (and our) heads? Why do truth and reason not persuade us?
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