Pastor Tom's Community

Photo by In the spirit of blessing and benediction, we come to pray for a friend. Such a prayer blesses the giver, the receiver, and the heart of God. In this case, the intercessor is speaking to God on behalf of another but in doing so openly, is speaking also, to the other on behalf…

“But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” – Amos 5:24 It is as if Amos were here with us today. His words sing out the song of “judgment” or “justice.” It is a strong word for what happens in a community or a nation when God works through people…

Born this day, December 3,  in 1895 – Anna Freud, Austrian-English psychologist and psychoanalyst (d. 1982) “I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time.” ― Anna Freud “Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training” ― Anna…

A Potter by Elsie Berg. I wanted to research her a bit, both to check copyright issues and to know something about her. She and her husband, artist Mommie Schwartz were Dutch painters who stayed during the Holocaust and died 3 days after arriving at Auschwitz in 1942. They refused to wear the yellow badge,…

Today's Advent Psalms are numbers 1-3. I offer you some brief reflections in conversational form on each.

"Where there is sadness (let me sow), joy." I do not know every sadness of humanity, Lord."Man of Sorrows, what a name for the Son of God, who came …"I do not know.Thou knowest. Each heart knows its own sadness, you have told us …And I believe for I have received the gits of sadness…

On this day, December 1, in 1862 – In his State of the Union Address President Abraham Lincoln reaffirms the necessity of ending slavery as ordered ten weeks earlier in the Emancipation Proclamation: Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention. If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could…

It is hard to believe she is 79 today. Such a heartthrob and angelic musical presence. I love her much. Whose wings do you help supply with some of your wind? Who, besides God, is breathing into your wings? Wind is spirit and life. We are sharing in the process of life-giving words and deeds…

I had a terrible night of dreaming. I can usually resolve my dreams to some extent, as I dream them, and then wake up with some sort of peace. It was time to get up and all I felt was a sense of longing to get it resolved. As it turned out, that sense of…

… but only for a moment The wasteland of human greatness The end of the hands and mind of the greatest composer in human history The final resting place of his genius Final respects for the most brilliant of brilliance of human creativity … Or is it? What is that you are listening to? Brilliance…