Deus Misereatur

Recently I heard David Grann speak about another book he authored,  Killers of the Flower Moon . While at the presentation, I picked up a copy of "The White Darkness" at the book table. After perusing it I thought it would be worthwhile, purchased it, and received the author's autograph. It's a slender, glossy-paged hardback, that chronicles the three treks of Henry Worsley (4 October 1960 - 24 January 2016) as he pursued the trail of his ancestral relation, Frank Worsley. But more, as he followed the path of his hero, Ernest Shackleton in leadership and in obsessing on the Antarctica and the South Pole. Though the volume is slightly overpriced, it was a gripping read. Grann masterfully draws in several layers of narrative that cover family, history, and sheer stamina in the face of insurmountable odds, braids them together, and secures the reader's interest. The manuscript also includes photographs that give a good sense of the austere and spartan environmen...

Shepherds After My Own Heart: Pastoral Traditions and Leadership in the Bible by Timothy S. Laniak My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is a focused look into the practice of "shepherding" drawn from ancient information and Scripture. Laniak spends most of his time interacting with Moses (the Pentateuch) and David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, the four Gospel accounts, 1 Peter and Revelation. The author's approach was helpful in gaining a healthy perspective on how YHWH shepherds his people (and what it means), how our Lord Jesus addressed it, and then it's applications to the ministerial shepherds of God's people today (in contrast with bad shepherds who fleece and fracture God's people). This book is both a corrective and a directive. It's corrective nature is seen in how the author faces the misuse of ministerial-shepherds: "Abusing others was an expression of the arrogant assumption that power is primarily privilege rather than responsibility...

As I read Exodus this morning in my devotional time, Exodus 2:23-25 struck a nerve and evoked a prayer for someone being emotionally, financially, psychologically, and religiously oppressed and abused. LORD God, Almighty, All-knowing, All-present: you are the God who heard Israel's groaning under oppression; you are the God who remembered your covenant; you are the God who saw what was happening to your people; you are the God who knew ! Look upon XXXX and XXXX and XXXX. O God who heard - hear our prayers and cries to you, hear their groans and the fear in their voice. Hear, O God, the threats, accusations and manipulative verbal assaults! Hear, O God! O God who remembered - remember the covenant ratified by your Son, Jesus Christ, and how XXXX is part of your covenant, as are their children. Remember that they are yours and you have promised them your aid; that you are for them and they have nothing to fear (Psalm 56:9c-10). Remember, O God! O God who saw - see what...

“Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed” (Revelation 15:3-4). LORD Jesus, we pray for your church which you obtained with your own blood, especially our congregation, the churches in the Hills and Plains Presbytery, and our denomination. Having been warned repeatedly by your servant Paul that fierce wolves will come in, not sparing the flock; and even from among the church leadership will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them; therefore, we pray. We pray for the ministers, pastors, bishops, and elders of our churches that they will pay careful attention to themselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made them overseers, to care for the church of God, where they have been placed (Acts 2:28-30); and tha...