Deus Misereatur

The Twelve Days of Christmas in Oklahoma by Tammi Sauer My rating: 5 of 5 stars What a fun book, and a beautiful way to introduce young Oklahomans and non-Oklahomans to the State's history and hot-spots! Tammi Sauer, author of some 27 children's picture books, has put together a brilliantly illustrated kid's hardback that spins off of an old Christmas song, with a distinctive Oklahoma twang! "The Twelve Days of Christmas in Oklahoma" is 40 big, glossy, colorful pages of sheer fun, facts and features, colorfully illustrated by Victoria Hutto. Sauer takes the old Christmas song and tailors it to Oklahoma around a visit by young Addison to her Oklahoma cousin, Ethan. They spend twelve, face-paced, whirlwind days touring Oklahoma sites, sounds and smells from the Southeast corner to the Northwest panhandle. The unique aspects of Oklahoma, from history to happenings, are chronicled in letters sent by Addison to her parents each day, mentioning activities and spec...

Last Call for Liberty by Os Guinness My rating: 5 of 5 stars Over the past five or six years I have been puzzled and concerned at a change that has come over American assumptions and actions. That change seems to be a shift from a position of "innocent until proven guilty" to "guilty until proven innocent." Make an accusation and the accused is automatically declared guilty by many media moguls, cyber-gurus, podcast pontificators, as well as every Tammy, Dionne, and Henrietta on social media certain of their own self-assured rightness. The accusation is enough and no amount of provable innocence can be found to overcome the attribution. Then it dawned on me earlier this year: the Reign of Terror in France and the Great Terror in Russia followed similar paths. So, in an odd way, I was glad to read a new 336 page dense hardback, "Last Call for Liberty: How America's Genius for Freedom has Become Its Greatest Threat" penned by accomplished author, fou...

(If you would rather listen to the sermon, go here ) O Come, O Come, Emmanuel Pt 2 Isaiah 2.1-5 (Jude 1-5) ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. We heard last week how “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (TH 194) was an 8 th century composition. This reminds us that every time we sing it we are adding our voices to millions who have sung these words for over a millennia and a half. We also learned that a different verse was sung each night from 16-23 December, and so, appropriately, we’re going to approach this Advent carol one verse per Sunday. Today we tangle with the ...

(The picture is from lighting a Christmas tree, downtown Oklahoma City) O Lord God, unlike us in your very being, unlimited by space, unrestrained by time, untouched by mortality, and unmarred by sin; yet you made us to bear and reflect your image in some way so that we might have warm communion with you! And even more, after our open rebellion you sent your Son who became as full-bloodedly and full-bodily human as we are to bring us back into communion with you! What an astounding thought! O Lord, we adore you and thank you! In grateful communion with you we plead with you for the world and the Church. Look upon the nations of this world, including our own country. See all of the spite, insurrections, commotions, mayhem, wars, droughts, flooding, wild-fires, government-approved barbarity, orchestrated impoverishments, socially sanctioned human-sex-and-drug trafficking, as well as tribal and racial bigotry. Therefore we implore you to steer, steady and stabilize all nations;...