Hopewit

Jasper National Park, August 10, 2010 Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended, that we to judge thee have in hate pretended? By foes derided, by thine own rejected, O most afflicted!  Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee? Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee! 'Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee; I crucified thee.  For me, kind Jesus, was thy incarnation, thy mortal sorrow, and thy life's oblation; thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion, for my salvation. Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee, I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee, think on thy pity and thy love unswerving, not my deserving. We sang the English version of Herzliebster Jesu in the Maundy Thursday service at Eigenheim Mennonite Church yesterday. Written in a time and place of murder, plunder and the plague in Europe, Johann Heerman , poet and hymn writer, was familiar with the kind of affliction in which he visualizes the agony and death of Christ. ...

Take it from the Prairie Dog If we claim to be without sin , we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:8-10) On its face, the principle seems simple: if a child knocks down, breaks his mother’s precious vase and admits to having done it, the door to forgiveness, healing and restoration of relationship is opened, even if the vase was a highly valued possession and the breaking of it was a deliberate act performed in the heat of anger, possibly. Contrarily, a refusal to admit the act or justify it blocks that doorway. Restoration of relationship begins with honesty; we know this intuitively. So did the child commit a “sin?” And if “sin” is the right word for breaking the vase in anger, was that sin the act of breaking the vase, was it the anger tow...

What the Hare says: "I hop, therefor I am." Genesis 1:28 - “ God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. ’” “ Among [U.S. Interior Secretary] Zinke's appointees [to the national wildlife protection board] is Steven Chancellor, a longtime Republican fundraiser and chairman of American Patriot Group, an Indiana-based conglomerate [...]       According to Safari Club member hunting records obtained in 2015 by the Humane Society, Chancellor has logged nearly 500 kills — including at least 18 lions, 13 leopards, six elephants and two rhinos.” ( http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-wildlife-protection-board-trophy-hunters-1.4578852 ) President Obama restricted the importation to the US of hunting trophies for certain endangered species. Not unexpectedly, the current US administ...

Ancient Stones - Grasslands National Park “When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally.” (Deuteronomy 7:1 & 2 NIVUK) “ You must destroy them totally.” To equate the Jewish justification for “possessing” Canaan with the current Palestinian situation, and/or with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s conclusion that colonialism was tantamount to genocide, well, that would prove to be replete with pitfalls. But because this book is included in Christian Bibles and has been read by generations of Christians as part of an inspired whole, ignoring it’s unbelievably harsh message would also be folly. We’ve been known as nations and churches for sw...

Suggest a Caption Any discussion of News , whether it be the fake kind or the main stream or true kind should probably begin with a look at the body of TV, radio, print and internet reporting we now subsume under the heading, NEWS . (At the core is the word new , of course. New is an adjective in it’s general sense, and adjectives don’t normally have plural forms so the “S” at the end already makes news feel gimmicky. But let that be. It’s just the grammar obsession in me talking.) Casual conversation gropes for topics sometimes. When cousins get together for an afternoon, the topics of conversation are only marginally predictable. Cousin Jake may safely be predicted to bring up the foibles of current government because that’s his obsession. His hatred of authority is a given. But what is predictable is that whatever is new will be the most welcome of topics. We are hungry for variety, and news offers food. The conversations whenever cousins or frie...