"To God be the glory," gospel hymn of gospel hymns! “Perfect redemption, the purchase of blood” opens the life gate to the kingdom in what Paul in Romans calls “life in the Spirit" on Earth here and now” You are baptized into it. I shall speak of it.  Gospel -> good spell, good story, good news! But  the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is not always good news. In Matthew last week Jesus’ parable contrasted weeds and wheat, followed by an allegory consigning weeds to the fire of hell, and again this morning, evildoers cast into the furnace of fire, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth; and again from Jesus in Matthew today, damnation to hellfire, weeping and gnashing of teeth. But Paul in Romans 8 is contrasting life in the flesh and life in the Spirit, and there’s a joyful take on salvation. This summer we are reading through Paul’s letter to the Romans. Romans is unlike Paul’s other epistles, which are to churches Paul established, and people (Philemon...

  August full moon guide 2023: The Full Sturgeon Moon makes a close pass to Saturn By  Jesse Emspak  last updated  4 days ago August's full The August Full moon: what to see and when moon will make a close pass by Saturn. The Full Sturgeon moon will come up on the evening of Aug. 1, at 2:32 p.m. Eastern Time (1832 UTC) ,  and it will be a "supermoon" as it happens just a day before the moon is closest to Earth; two days later, on Aug. 3, the just-past-full moon will make a close pass to Saturn.   https://www.space.com/33768-august-full-moon.html The August full moon, per the Farmer's Almanac, is called the Full Sturgeon moon because the sturgeons are more easily caught in August and early September. Sturgeons are native to both Europe and the Americas; the name (for the moon, not the fish) likely came from both colonists and Algonquin-speaking people in northeastern North America. In the Pacific Northwest the Tlingit called it the "berries ripe on mountain"...

  Stretching and straining toward my goal before next Tuesday morning's weigh-in for my annual consultation with my Primary Care Physician, for some weeks now I'm taking special care about what I eat - - proteins and green vegetables, no carbs, no sweets. One meal a day: breakfast, a single serve of avocado or guacamole with lots of liquid to fool the stomach; noon dinner the protein mainly fish or chicken and one green vegetable; supper with another avocado/guacamole single serve or a salad with maybe a sprinkle of chicken or seafood. FuroForty Sixty or Eighty to keep ankles, feet and legs down to size against the CHF, and instead of any salt, NoSalt, which is potassium and should replace potassium drained off by the Furosemide. Noon dinner today will be a perfect serving of salmon left over from last evening's dinner with friends, crookneck squash reclassified as a green vegetable, and a tiny sliver, just a taste of the most unusual and scrumptious seven-layer chocolate c...

  I love to think of them at dawn Beneath the pale, pink sky, Casting their nets in Galilee, And fish hawks circling by. They cast their nets in Galilee Just off the hills of brown; Such happy, simple fisherfolk Before the Lord came down. Contented, peaceful fishermen, Before they ever knew The peace of God that filled their hearts Brimful, and broke them too. Young John, who trimmed the flapping sail Homeless in Patmos died. Peter, who hauled the teeming net, Head down was crucified. The peace of God, it is no peace, But strife closed in the sod. Yet let us pray for but one thing: The marvelous peace of God.   “His Peace” William Alexander Percy, 1924 Yes, I realize I print Percy's poem here too frequently, but this is my blog, and there was a Time when it was a favorite hymn. We sang it in seminary, and the Lutherans had a really great tune and it was as glorious as singing "Jesus calls us, o'er the tumult of our life's wild restless sea" - - itself only to ...