Presby-Musings

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people... the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ." Titus 2:11, 13 This past Sunday, we started the very long, drawn out process of taking our Christmas lights and decorations down.  It's a sad task, and one that I have never completed at one sitting.   While we're not the last to do this in our neighborhood, we are among the last to be sure.  It's our custom ]to wait until Epiphany to say farewell to Christmas, which officially ends (according to the historic Church calendar) on January 6.   Epiphany is a season in the life of the Church that lasts until Lent, and which celebrates the revelation of the Messiah to a world in desperate need of rescue.   Although we may be sad to say farewell to Christmas, Epiphany gives us an opportunity to experience new joy and surprises.   The lectionary readings from Scripture during Epiphany take u...

This past week I got to do something that I have wanted to do for years--I visited the island of Patmos, and the traditional site where the book of Revelation was born.  In the first chapter of Revelation we find these words from John the Revelator:   I, John, with you all the way in the trial and the Kingdom and the passion of patience in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of God’s Word, the witness of Jesus. It was Sunday and I was in the Spirit, praying. I heard a loud voice behind me, trumpet-clear and piercing: “Write what you see into a book.  Tradition teaches that it was John the Evangelist, the youngest of the disciples of Jesus, who received the Revelation while he was in exile on Patmos.  These traditions teach that he would climb the highest hill on the island to pray inside a cave.  It was in that cave that he saw the vision that would become the Apocalypse  or the book of Revelation.   We visited The Cave of the A...

The passage of Scripture that I read today for my daily Bible reading came from the book of Revelation chapter 7.  I'm reading through the New Testament again this year, and am nearing the end, so I'm making my way through the rambling writings of John the Revelator once more.   The passage I read today describes a scene of cosmic worship and praise.  The Revelator writes:  I looked again. I saw a huge crowd, too huge to count. Everyone was there—all nations and tribes, all races and languages. And they were standing, dressed in white robes and waving palm branches, standing before the Throne and the Lamb and heartily singing: Salvation to our God on his Throne! Salvation to the Lamb! All who were standing around the Throne—Angels, Elders, Animals—fell on their faces before the Throne and worshiped God, singing: Oh, Yes! The blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving, The honor and power and strength, To our God forever and ever and ever! Oh, Yes...

I have been in his brightest shining heaven and seen such things that no man, once returned from there, has wit or skill to tell about.           - Dante from  Paradiso "Peter," said Lucy, "where is this, do you suppose?" "I don't know," said the High King.  "It reminds me of somewhere, but I can't give it a name.  Could it be somewhere we once stayed for a holiday when we were very, very small?"          - C.S. Lewis from The Last Battle What is Heaven like?  What can we learn from visions of Heaven that will give us a renewed sense of purpose here on earth?  How can we defy that old saying, Christians are so heavenly minded, "they are no earthly good?" A Spirit-filled vision of Heaven should give us hope for the future, and a purpose for the present.  When we go to the Bible we find some interesting visions of Heaven... In Isaiah 2:2-4 we have this description of Heaven from the prop...

My best memories of the 4th of July have to be the days when I was in middle school and I went on vacation to visit my mom's family in Greenville, SC. Fireworks were/are legal in SC and not in FL where I lived/live.  This would account for all of the fireworks stands in SC & GA on the interstate that leads in and out of FL.  I am not sure why I am abbreviating the names of these states, but there you go.  I remember one summer we went to the fireworks store in Greenville prior to the 4th.  I was given the green light by my mom to spend a certain amount of money on explosives.  This is the kind of green light that every middle school boy wants to receive.  Between all of my cousins we obtained enough fireworks to blow up a small car or a shed.  It was a lot of fireworks. As soon as it was dark we commenced setting off bottle rockets, Roman candles, spinners, fountains, Black Cats and M-80's.  It was magical.  In a moment of infinit...