Abraham and Rahab

After James 2:14-26 

The writer cites

two examples

of faith with works:

first, Abraham,

who demonstrated

he would give up

what was most

precious if that’s

what God asked;

and Rahab, who

hid the spies,

risking arrest

and death if 

they were found. 

One would 

sacrifice his son,

the other would

sacrifice her

freedom and life.

Both showed faith 

in action; both

showed faith

plus works.

 

Photograph by Gabriel Lamza via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

“None Other Lamb,” poem by Christina Rossetti – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

The Trouble Underneath – Seth Lewis.

 

One Step Becomes a Three-Day Walk – Timarie Friesen.

Works! Faith!

After James 2:14-26 

Faith alone saves,

but it is faith with

works that justifies.

Works alone do not 

save; they must be

attended and enveloped

by faith. Both matter.

Both are necessary.

Faith without works

is dead. Works without

faith will not save you.

Works come from faith,

not to earn God’s favor,

but to demonstrate 

God’s power to transform.

Works with faith changes

the won who does them 

as much as the one who

receives.

 

Photograph by Billy Pasco via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

“The Central Moment,” poem by A.F. Moritz – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

The Best Way to Resist Temptation – Seth Lewis.

 

Heart of the Verse: Psalm 34:18 – Jason Clark at This is Jason.

 

Dimensions – Patrick Luscri.

Live by works, or...

After Galatians 3:7-14 

Live by works, or

live by faith – that’s

the choice we make.

And it’s clear:

live by works, and die,

because works are

never enough, insufficient

to compensate, bridge 

the gap, close the chasm.

It takes more to lift

the curse, this curse

we live under. Only

by One becoming

the curse could it be

lifted. And all we’re

asked is to have faith,

and believe. Choose

faith.

 

Photograph by Jessica Delp via Unsplash. Used with permission.

The i's are dotted, the t's crossed

After Philippians 3:4-11

The i’s are all dotted:

I have done it all,

fulfilled every plan

and dream, attained 

every position I set out

to attain, every honor,

every award.

The t’s are all crossed:

I’ve been exactly what

I was supposed to be:

a follower of rules,

tireless worker, a giver,

a tither, a teacher,

I have a pedigree

unsurpassed,

I’ve even taught

junior high boys

in Sunday School

and lived to tell

the tale.

And it all counts

for exactly 

nothing,

worthless, not

even worthy

of a paving stone

in the courtyard.

What matters isn’t

what I’ve done,

what I’ve believed,

what I’ve accepted,

what I’ve fought for.

All that matters

is knowing the carpenter,

is knowing the fisherman.

Photograph by Jonatan Becerra via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Gumball machine

After Psalm 73:1-17

It’s always worked before.

Drop in my coin, a nickel

or a quarter, turn the crank,

and out pops the gumball.

But this time I turn the crank

and nothing comes out; 

I turn again and the crank

jams. I rage against the machine

that promises and doesn’t deliver,

I dropped my coin into the slot;

I did my part, I did what I was

supposed to do and nothing

happened, no gum ball came out. 

I shake the machine in anger

and cry out why? And the voice

says, I am not a gumball machine.

Photograph by Joshua Coleman via Unsplash. Used with permission.

“Charles Dickens: An Introduction” by Jenny Hartley

If you want to read a biography or background on Charles Dickens, you have countless volumes to choose from. You have Peter Ackroyd’s mammoth biography Dickens (1000+pages) published in 1990; you have shorter and excellent studies by authors like G.K. Chesterton, Michael Slater and Claire Tomalin; and you have a wide array of specialty studies. You can even find the original biography by Dickens’ friend John Forster, published a few years after Dickens died in 1870.

One of the best short biographies I’ve come across is one published in 2016 by Jenny Hartley, entitled Charles Dickens: An Introduction, and it’s especially helpful if you want to know more about his works than his life. A small volume of 151 pages, it organizes Dickens’ writings thematically and explains why his works are still widely read today. And Hartley manages to work in the key biographical details and background needed to help understand Dickens’ stories.

She starts with what may be one of the best-known scenes in all of Dickens’ works – the skinny young boy Oliver Twist telling the fat and healthy school master that he wanted more gruel: “Please, sir, I want some more.” Hartley explores the scene and uses it to explain why Dickens became so popular – and why his popularity endured.

Jenny Hartley

In five succeeding essays, she considers how Dickens used elements of his own life throughout his books (some events and situations were not known until after his death); how he used character and plot (he was a genius at character and often criticized for plots that seemed contrived); his ongoing love affair with London, what he called his “magic lantern;” just how radical he was in his causes and politics, while still supporting public order; and then his impact and lasting influence, the word “Dickensian” coming into popular usage in his own lifetime.

Hartley is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Roehampton. She is also the author of Millions Like Us: British Women’s Fiction of the Second World War (1997); The Selected Letters of Charles Dickens (2012); Charles Dickens and the House of Fallen Women (2012); and other works. She is Scholar in Residence at the Charles Dickens Museum in London and has served as the president of the International Dickens Fellowship.

Charles Dickens: An Introduction is an excellent resource and provides a succinct overview of the writer’s works and why he remains so popular.

Related:

Charles Dickens: Resources on His Life, Works, Walks, and London.

Top photograph: Charles Dickens in the 1850s.

Cities once so vibrant

After Ephesians 1:20-23, 3:18-19

Those cities once so vibrant,

filled with people and commerce,

sights and sounds, always

the sounds of life throbbing

and growing, cloaking

themselves in proud names:

Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae,

Corinth, and not just Antioch

but Pisidian Antioch as well,

to differentiate younger

from older, Smyrna, Pergamum,

Sardis, Thyatira, Laodicea,

Philadelphia, names flowing

from the tongue like great dramas,

Greek dramas, dramas now shrouded

by the closed curtain, and now

behind the curtain lies only outlines

in stone, implications without certainty,

suggestions only of the wife

shouting down the street

at her husband or child. Instead,

only the sounds of the wind

are heard, wind without memory,

the taste of aging dust.

Photograph by Megan Sanford via Unsplash. Used with permission.

To plunge into the second part

After Isaiah 56:1, 2

To plunge into the second part

is a mystery, a bewilderment,

this justice bit, this doing

right, aimed at whim, aimed

by whom, aimed when

although the why is less

unknown, because of what

is at hand, suggesting or offering

a mercy and a grace, a blessing

for doing this consistently and

daily, a moment by moment

commitment to act and act

of commitment, and how is

justice bound up in rest

or the Sabbath, as if we

need rest from a hard work.

It’s a mystery, this drenching

of the world with the kingdom.

Photograph by David Marcu via Unsplash. Used with permission.