Prepare Ye

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?         Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;         and by night, but find no rest. from Psalm 22 My mind and heart are heavy with grief this morning. Nine people are dead in Charleston, South Carolina - executed during a Bible study at Emmanuel AME Church. I do not want to believe that someone would want to commit this act of terror. The more details that come out, the more I can not understand where this destructive hate comes from. I had planned on posting today to share Pope Francis' encyclical letter on the environment, Laudato Si (Praise to you.) The Pope lays out his case for how we are responsible for the damage to our planet and what we can do to address these issues. You can download it below. I have also included a study from the ELCA on awakening God's call to Earthkeeping. But you, O LORD, do not be far away!         O my help

from the June 2015 Messenger Happy Plenty-Cost!! My Big Guy has been reading to me from the book of the Acts of the Apostles. I think he is looking for my advice, because he keeps hearing how people like my articles. He has been re-reading the part from the 2nd Chapter around Plenty-Cost, when the disciples received the Holy Spirit, and flames appeared on their heads, and they could speak with different tongues. That must have been really tough. My mouth is pretty big, and only one tongue can fit in there. Having a different tongue in there would be really strange. But through the Holy Spirit, everything is possible. What I thought was really interesting was that the people who were telling the people in Jerusalem to repent and return to God were the same ones who abandoned and denied Jesus when he was handed over to be crucified. I wondered how they could tell others what to do, when they didn’t do the right thing themselves. It’s like me telling others not to chew on th