My current audiobook keeping my lengthy daily commute from becoming absolutely mind-numbing is a retelling of the Greek myths, Mythos, written and read by Stephen Fry. (Yes, that Stephen Fry.) The book came highly recommended from generally reputable sources, so when it became available through my library app, into my downloads it went. I was…
Tag: Hebrews
New Endeavors
We’ve undertaken new endeavors here at the Barton household in 2022 as a family: reading through the New Testament over the course of a year. (Thanks to the pastor at church who did all the leg work of finding plans and printing them and making them widely available at the beginning of the year.) It’s…
Brought Near
“Bow down and worship, righteous seer: / The Lord our God is here / Approachable, Who bids us all draw near.” – Christina Rossetti, Epiphany* It “just so happened” that I was reading Ezekiel, Hebrews, and portions of Leviticus and Deuteronomy at the same time shortly before the end of the year. That convergence of…
Held Fast by a Holdfast
Last week I drew a bit of inspiration from a current read, essentially a guidebook on the animals found between the tide lines on the Pacific coast. I’m revisiting that same book, Ed Ricketts’ Between Pacific Tides today, on a slightly different topic. A couple of days ago, I began the section on open rocky…
Shadows
Fall has arrived here in northeast Ohio, marked most significantly at my house by leaves: the brilliant orange, red, and yellow hues as they stop producing chlorophyll, the massive piles we’ve raked already, and the quantities that still linger both on the ground and as yet unfallen on the trees. The air has not yet…
Created to Draw Near
The concept of priests and priesthood probably strikes most Protestants as a little…..different. For those with closer ties to Catholicism, it may smack of tradition and ritual, of unintelligible and unknown church teachings. For those more well-versed in the Old Testament, it might bring to mind the image of sacrifices, blood, and altars, of inspections…
Messiah, Part 2
This Advent season, I’m running a series of the text (libretto) to Messiah by George Frederic Handel. You’ll find below the biblical text (King James Version, of course) used in Part 2, whose theme is “The accomplishment of redemption by the sacrifice of Christ, mankind’s rejection of God’s offer, and mankind’s utter defeat when trying…