Deus Misereatur

Sunday morning: From Psalm 33 Shout for joy in the LORD, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright. Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings! Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. O God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, our hearts are glad and we continue to lift our voices in thanksgiving and praise! For the word of the LORD is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD. You, Mighty God, Lord Most High, are our hero, our savior. As your upright word goes forth from your preachers, evangelists, pastors and teachers, may it not return to you void, but accomplish what you please and prosper in the thing for which you sent it. May your church, including this congregation; Selecman UMC; House of Prayer Church; Linn Ave Pentecostal Holiness Church; Meeks Chapel; Paradise Temple; Hillcrest Pentecostal Ch...

Fearless: The Heroic Story of One Navy SEAL's Sacrifice in the Hunt for Osama Bin Laden and the Unwavering Devotion of the Woman Who Loved Him by Eric Blehm My rating: 5 of 5 stars I'm wiping the tears from my eyes right now. I've just finished "Fearless" by Eric Blehm, and cried through the last part. I cried for Adam, for Kelley and the kids, for his parents and family, for his teammates who died a few moths after his own death, and I cried for their families. I sorrow for them, but the book also brings me to give thanks for such who serve, and serve well; and I give thanks that I served my country for 20 years in the U.S. Air Force. "Fearless" is a story of wasted potential, loss, fall, shame, and darkness. But it is also a story of reclamation, redemption, resilience, radiance, rightness and camaraderie. The author follows Adam's life from childhood, through the muck and misery of his meth addiction, to his messy conversion, and on into his Na...

One Nation Under God: A Christian Hope for American Politics Bruce E. Ashford and Chris Pappalardo B&H Publishing Group One LifeWay Plaza Nashville, TN. 37234 www.bhpublishinggroup.com ISBN: 9781433690693; December 2015; $14.99 Reviewed by Rev. Dr. Michael Philliber for Deus Misereatur 5 Stars out of 5 It’s that time! It happens every couple of years when the American blood pressure spikes, the nation grabs it’s communal chest, staggers and stumbles, all red-faced and in cold-sweats. It’s called election season, and by all reports on social media, news accounts, video feeds, journal articles, coffee shop chats and blog posts, it’s the end of America once again! The sun is about to turn black, the moon blood red, stars are on the verge of falling out of the sky to crash into the earth. Into this national apocalyptic and apoplectic ailment steps a new, 176 page hardback, “One Nation Under God: A Christian Hope for American Politics” that seeks to bring s...

The Great Exchange by Robert and Kay Camenisch My rating: 3 of 5 stars For Christians to practice the art of reading the whole Bible, from Old Testament to New, is a virtue quickly going by the wayside. The issue is not just reading the whole Bible, but the art of seeing the totality of the Sacred Scriptures as one story, with one central hero: the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Robert C. and Kay W. Camenisch have provided Bible readers an exercise in just such an endeavor with their recently published, 224 page paperback, "The Great Exchange: Bound by Blood." This is a simply written, non-academic and non-technical volume, crafted for the person-in-the-pew. "The Great Exchange" surveys Scripture from Abraham to the New Testament through the lens of covenant. The Camenisches work out the definition and seven marks of a covenant. Then from that position they walk the reader through the Abrahamic Covenant, Mosaic Covenant, and several others, showing how each one...

From Psalm 28 We lift up, O Lord, our voices with the Psalmist, and in the name of Jesus your Son: To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary. We pray, Lord God, for those who are bearing heavy strains from work or joblessness…; from disease and disorder….; from cracked up and crumbling marriages….; from rocky and wrecked families….; from darkness and depression….; from agitation and anxiousness….; hear their plea, and hear us as we join with them. Like the blind man who came to Jesus, the woman with an issue of blood, and the Canaanite woman on behalf of her daughter; may they hear you say “Great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire” and be healed and restored! Do not drag me off with the wicked, with the workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors ...

Justification: God's Plan & Paul's Vision by N.T. Wright My rating: 5 of 5 stars Around a decade back, while working on my doctorate, I attended a public discussion between N.T. Wright and Richard Gaffin. During one of the breaks I approached Bishop Wright to ask him to sign my copy of his commentary on Romans. He asked the reason for my coming to the event and I explained that I needed an elective course and had convinced my director to allow me to craft a self-directed class on “N.T. Wright’s doctrine of Justification”. He chuckled and said, “There’s not much mystery about it.” A few years after that meeting, in 2009, he published “Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision” which has been recently repackaged with a new introduction penned by Wright. This book shows “that there’s not much mystery about it.” The material of the 2016 “Justification” is exactly the same as the 2009 edition, even down to the pagination. As Wright asserted then he affirms now, “Any preac...

The Wildcat of Braeton by Claire M. Banschbach My rating: 5 of 5 stars Friendship that lasts to the end of one’s life is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain in the light of the high mobility of the nomadic 21st Century. And yet friendship – true, lasting friendship – is one of the gaping holes in our societal chests. It is a large theme fleshed out in Tolkien’s works like “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” and it is a major tone vibrating through Claire M. Banscbach’s “The Wildcat of Braeton”. This 447 page paperback written for fantasy-fiction lovers young and old, wraps up the story that began in “The Rise of Aredor,” bringing the saga to an end. Many of the cast of characters in “The Wildcat of Braeton” are old acquaintances met in the earlier volume, along with several newer ones. The first half of the story follows Corin’s friend, Aiden, who was still in the service of Lord Rishdah of Calorin, but has now completed his time in Rishdah’s Phoenix Guard. He return...