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Showing posts from September, 2016

Please, Just a little Salt

Have you ever cried salty tears? You know those tears that cascade into pools around your chin. I remember those kinds of tears from my childhood when I got in trouble over some major youthful indiscretion. This morning I started to think about salt and decided to do a little reading about it. We can easily pick up a salt shaker, therefore I think we have  forgotten its great value. I read how salt helped to shape human history. Great wars have been fought over salt. The Romans used to pay their soldiers in salt, which was as valuable as gold.  As I read I learned that the first cities, such as Yuncheng in China,  were built near places which had salt mines or were near areas where they could trade for salt. I’ve been to Salzburg, Austria, which is located on the Salzach River. This morning I learned that “Salzach literally means "salt river" and Salzburg "salt castle", both taking their names from the German word Salz meaning salt..” 1  I thought about when

Sometimes Racism is Hiding in Plain sight

"Let's talk to Moses about leadership" said Miriam to her brother Aaron. " After, all I'm a prophetess too, and Moses just isn't sharing  leadership like he should," Miriam explained to Aaron and the other elders. Miriam and Aaron may have deceived the Hebrews into thinking they were only trying to have a discussion with Moses on distributive leadership. However, they couldn’t fool God. Miriam merely cloaked her racism in a discussion on leadership.  Instead God went right to the heart of the matter. Numbers 12 verse one states, “And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman” God didn’t let Miriam and Aaron get away with their racist attitudes.  They attempted to turn a nation against Moses for marrying an African woman. This next verse is the cover for their racist attitude. Numbers 12:2  “And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not s

Have you Stopped Speaking?

Did your parent ever tell you, “No,” or told you to, “Wait,” when you sincerely asked for something? Did your teacher or coach ever turn down your earnest request? Did you angrily stop talking to that person for the rest of your life and refuse to interact with that person because you didn’t get the answer you wanted?   Is that the reason you will not speak to God?  Maybe God didn’t give you the answer you wanted or felt you deserved at the moment you wanted it. Last night one of my granddaughters and I were looking at " King of Dreams," the Disney movie about Joseph. His jealous, vindictive brothers betrayed him by selling him for twenty pieces of silver(About $350). As he was being shackled and being dragged off Joseph cried out to his brothers to not do it. I turned to my granddaughter and said, “Does that look like the will of God?” I am pretty certain that Joseph couldn’t see God in his brothers selling him off. Of course their actions weren’t kind, right or humane?