My grandfather lived in a rustic house near a sloping cool branch with slipery stones and verdant woods I walked slowly toward the treeline where mystery lay and there in the shade of autumn’s bough i see darkness rising close of day. but death, a far closer angel visited then and will and again because…
Category: Blog
The Belly of the Beast
Everybody ends up in the belly of the beast. There are few exceptions from the greatest to the least. You stumble into quicksand. You’re weary of the world. Lies wreck your reputation. Insults, viciously, are hurled. Addiction lies in dormancy then rears it’s ugly head. Depression sinks in slowly, Like the whispers of the dead….
You Can Have It All
Forgiveness
“He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.” – George Herbert How important is it to forgive? Eternally important. The past is consuming to the person who doesn’t forgive. We become stuck. We fantasize vindication. We look at relationships surrounding the offense in a possessive manner. We cling to bitterness…
He is fathering me
He is fathering me even in the days I cannot see Through every trial I face. He is there even in my disgrace. Every lonely, broken place. I am held together bone by bone and I do not walk alone. How my neediness has grown. In my aging days I have come to see how…
Audio Devotionals for Easter!
He Came for the Rest of Us
A new Christmas book of 20 readings for devotionals and poems which can be used as worship readings, personal devotionals, and even sermons. The story of Jesus rings true as a divine romp, full of messiness, wedding wine, feasting, sweat, blood, betrayal, passion, resurrection and reckless, inexplicable grace. God doesn’t sanitize the details because grace…
Just West of Bethlehem
Shepherds from the West! This works well as a dramatic vignette or a simple reader’s theater piece. Fun to perform with the country accent of your region. Cast: Josiah, Henry, Jake, Angel Gabriel Josiah: And before I knew it, that wolf done snuck up behind me and started carryin’ the sheep off by the scruff of the…
Song Introduction to “Away in a Manger”
Here is an easy, informal reading to be performed before “Away in the Manger” Reader 1: away Reader 2: but so near to the outcast Reader 1: near to the blood of the innocents Reader 2: near to life, a dangerous mystery Reader 1: no crib for a bed Reader 2: 1st century squalor of…
The Cradle and the Cross
Worship leaders start early with some creative tools to enhance your Christmas worship. Here is a simple reading that contrasts the Christ’s Birth and Crucifixion. Works great as an introduction to a song. Reader #1: Mankind had wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, Reader #2: And now they stripped him. Reader #3: Wise men had sought Him, to worship…