Trailing Star Circles

{Star trails are visible due to Earth’s rotation, which causes stars to appear to move across the sky. As Earth spins on its axis, long exposure photographs can capture this motion, showing stars as streaks or arcs in circled image. Wikipedia} Trailing Star Circles Only 4 or 5 times have I felt the earth spin…

Elk Crossing the Lake

Sunrise broke a couple of large marble pots leaning against the walls of heaven and sky. Did you know that the colors of dawn and dusk are stored in these magnificent stone jars? They stand waiting in the wings of aurora and twilight, ready to be broken open and slathered across the horizon.  Freshly released,…

Golden Harvest

I will plant seeds in the barren soil of your heartache and loneliness. I will water the  hard ground  with your tears, shed in the secret  disappointments  of your heart.  My smile will burn through the your weary darkness  and scatter  the storm clouds.  I will grow a harvest  from what you rejected, wasted, and…

Crucible Trophies

To the evenings without heat and mornings without water. To the showers that ended in the middle and scratchy blue crepe that doubled as toilet paper. To the rough and long drives from Myaki to Odessa, and the unreliable but wonderful poconetcom. To the red jeep, with conspicuous Texas license plates, that carried us across…

I Am Jesus

In the scorched earth of the October 7th war and against the black shroud of inconceivable inhumanity, death,  and mourning, I unexpectedly discovered a riot of living and colorful resilience, hope,  and even joy among Israelis during our recent trip to the Mid East. I had not imagined this response, and it captured my attention…

Kneeling

I’ve spent a lifetime  bandaging my feet, partly from ill-fitting  shoes, traveling too  many miles in a day,  losing my way, making  a wrong turn, or  carrying too many  burdens. Also, there are the roads I’ve traveled  long just to gaze upon ancient stones, a rusted  filigree, or become dizzy with the scent of an …

The Zeal of the Lord

Here we are a number of years ago in Odessa, Ukraine, the birth place of the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute. “For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this,” (Isaiah 37:32). The above scripture was part of my…

Joy’s Dilemma

My treasured keepsakes bulge in pockets of time—rather moments—that are tucked hard against the bones of my heart. They remain as fresh and life-giving as the first-offerings of spring rosesbuds, tight with fragrance and bleeding of crimson that smears across my fingers as I pull them out one petal at a time. The edges are…

Scottish Revival 1923

You can’t visit Scotland and not drink from the deep spiritual wells there, dug by stalwart Scottish Christians proclaiming salvation with changed lives. Right where I am standing here in Portsoy on the Banffshire coast, in front of the Shore Inn, a revival broke out in 1923. Here is an excerpt from, “Floods upon Dry…

Ineffable

Remember when we watched—mesmerized by majestic deer on the distant highlands, feeding at noon? And our friends exclaimed, “How intriguing for this time of day!” The ground shook; and the sun, moon, and stars broke to pause and peer for a lifetime of five seconds. It was the cry of the seagulls and arcs of…