New Morning Muses

  • On Fellowship

    As a member of a Christian church, I find the idea of devoting myself to teaching and prayer normal. Devoting myself to fellowship and the breaking of bread are two areas I find slightly strange. In many traditions, substituting “fellowship” with “attending church” and “breaking of bread” with “communion” would feel more comfortable. But we…

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  • “One Assembly” by Jonathan Leeman

    I had never heard of Jonathan Leeman until a few months ago. My church’s recommended reading list included his 2018 book, “How the Nation’s Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age”. It was a heavy book and I don’t think I made it all the way through. A few months later they recommended…

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  • The Secret Things Belong to the LORD

    The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” —Duet. 29:29 Are you ever overwhelmed by the largeness of God? Certainly it is a comfort when I feel lost or confused…

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  • When Fall

    The morning air was cool today. 60 degrees when I awoke but it will reach 75 degrees by noon. I feel the beginnings of fall in the air. The leaves are starting to appear on the ground so the trees must feel it too. I saw flannel shirts being worn at the pancake breakfast today…

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  • Pulling on the Genesis 6 Thread — Sons of God

    The first 11 chapters of the Bible cover the creation of the world and the time before the flood. If you want to sound smart you can call this the antediluvian period. But smack dab in the middle of the passage—chapter 6–there are introduced new characters, the sons of God and the Nephilim. Let’s pull…

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  • Methuselah Probably Died in the Flood

    I like math and I like the Bible so I thought, “why not put them together?” So I decided to look at the first recorded genealogy in Genesis 5. It’s a fairly standard, 10 generation list of descendants. Adam had Seth had Enosh… I’ve probably read this passage 50+ times. I put all the dates…

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  • He Graced Both

    “Two debtors were indebted to a certain lender. One owed five hundred denaria, the other fifty. They, not having [a way] to repay… he graced both. Therefore, which of them will love him more?”

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