The Gemeinhaus Bell, Prayer, The War Room

The Power of Prayer

A 'Best of THYMEs' Feature...

G-d's Word to Praying People

Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
    Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
    and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
For day after day they seek me out;
    they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
    and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
    and seem eager for God to come near them.
‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
    ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
    and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
    and exploit all your workers.
Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
    and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
    and expect your voice to be heard on high.
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
    only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
    and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
    a day acceptable to the Lord?

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
    with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
    and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
    and your night will become like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you always;
    he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
    and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
    like a spring whose waters never fail.
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
    and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
    Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

“If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
    and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
    and the Lord’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
    and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
then you will find your joy in the Lord,
    and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land
    and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”For the mouth of the Lord has spoken." -- Isaiah 58

A special thank-you to Carl Tate for pointing out this scripture. As the 'other' weekly news magazine celebrates the 'Me' Generation's potential to become the next 'Greatest Generation' a number of great messages have been preached about dying to self and seeking to "decrease that G-d might increase." Indeed, men and women such as Jeremiah Lanphier, George Müller and Florence Nightengale began their journeys in prayer with a recognition of the heart of G-d.

This led them to minister to the pain of people around them. Then, realizing their own inadequacy, they redoubled their laboring in prayer.G-d met them and did amazing works through them.

Such is the hope that we should have as we begin a season of earnest prayer... that G-d will shine forth in the world, and that we will be open to His Spirit doing so.

Jeremiah Lanphier's Journey of Prayer
How A Nation Was Turned to G-d and Restored


Jeremiah Lanphier discovered the power of prayer in his own life.

A Milestone Monday Feature:

America found herself at a crossroads. Wild speculation and greed had built a house of cards. While a few became incredibly wealthy, the gap between haves and have-nots grew ever wider.   The economic crash had put 30,000 men out of work on the streets of New York City.  Churches languished as people explored Spiritism and other "new" ideas. We, of the Twenty-first Century, would find the condition of the culture strangely familiar.

Political corruption, shady dealings in business and a general moral decline were the norm.  "Atheism, agnosticism, apathy and indifference to God, to the church, and its message abounded on every hand. The decline was fourfold: social, moral, political and spiritual." -- Tom Shanklin

Then came the crash! Factories were shuttered. Banks failed and merchants were ruined. Thousands were destitute. Winkie Pratney, who chronicled the great revival, says: "A near socio-economic collapse jolted America away from her apathy into a national cry for spiritual reality." Chuck Balsamo presents a wonderful concise history of this revival in his book Make Me a Legend [click to read]. The story does not begin with a mighty move and thousands of conversions, rather it begins in a rather small way.

Jeremiah Lanphier was a middle-aged businessman caught in the crossroads. Having no children and no family, he was drawn to minister to the needs of those living in the dark slums of Hell's Kitchen. Leaving his business, he became a lay missionary with the North Dutch Church in Manhattan. Pouring his life into the lives of those he saw caught in hopelessness, he soon came to the end of his own strength. Physically and mentally exhausted, Lanphier discovered that just as the body needs food, the soul and spirit of a man need to be nourished in prayer.[1.]

Each day at midday, Lanphier would seek solace in the Church Consistory Building, where he would cry out to G-d for spiritual strength. He experienced G-d in a mighty way in these times and felt that others would benefit from prayer as well, especially the city's businessmen. He printed up and distributed 20,000 flyers advertising his first noontime prayer meeting, on September 23, 1857.

That day he prayed alone for thirty minutes before six others joined him. The next week there were twenty. The week after that forty people showed up. In time over 100 churches had noonday prayer meetings going throughout the city. G-d's powerful move was felt far beyond New York City. Newspaperman Horace Greeley wanted to get a count of the number of men  praying in New York so he sent a reporter out to the meetings. Racing around the city in a horse-drawn buggy, the reporter was only able to get to twelve meetings in the noon hour, but he counted 6,100 in attendance.

Spiritual awakening followed and Americans found strength in G-d for the turbulent days that followed. This Third Great Awakening not only revitalized the spirit of America's people, but led to missionary outreach around the world.  [2.]

The Prayer Meeting that Touched the World
Moravians Prayed Around the Clock for 100 Years


The village of Herrnhut in Saxony.

A Milestone Monday Feature

The Moravian Brethren Church was born in the 1720's when Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf gave refuge to persecuted Hussites from Moravia and Bohemia. The village of Herrnhut, Saxony, now a part of Germany, was built by them.

Count Zinzendorf started a round-the-clock prayer meeting in 1727. It lasted one hundred years. People in Herrnhut signed up to pray for an hour a day.

What G-d did as a result of that prayer meeting is amazing. In an era when travel was difficult and dangerous the Moravians became a major force in reaching the world with the Gospel. Their ministry took them to many parts of the world. Moravians settled in the new world in Pennsylvania. The cities of Bethlehem and Nazareth are Moravian settlements. Count Zinzendorf secured a large tract of land in North Carolina where the Moravians established Bethabara. From here they began outreach to the Native Americans around them.

In 1753, Moravians from North Carolina travelled into the Cherokee Nation, which extended into North Georgia and Alabama from Western North Carolina. The nonacquisitive Moravians eventually developed a long standing ministry among the Cherokee. Since unmarried Moravian men and women lived in communal houses, one house for men and another for women, they may have been philosphically closer to a long house people than other Europeans. The New Georgia Encyclopedia states of them:

Generally, the accomplishments of the Moravians lay in the fact that their missions not only opened their doors to all visitors, including African slaves from nearby Cherokee plantations, but also functioned as model farms for European agricultural techniques. Particularly, the Spring Place Mission served as an exemplar for other missionary enterprises to emulate."

The Moravians certainly were lovers of innovation in agriculture and craftsmanship. Visit the restored Moravian settlement in Salem, North Carolina today and you will see some of the first water pipes in America -- hollowed logs with metal couplings -- that carry water inside the Single Brothers' House.

The Ringing of the Gemeinhaus Bell
The Call to Meeting that Saved the Moravians from Slaughter

The Unitas Fratrum, or the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United Brethren, commonly called Moravians, made the beginning of its settlement in North Carolina in the year 1753. The Moravians lived in a Christian Community and sought to reach out to the Creek and Cherokee in the regions they settled in. Single Moravians lived in communal houses and thus were seen as living a life similar to the Native people they sought to minister among. Receiving a tract of land in North Carolina, they built the community of Bethabara, with its central Gemeinhaus. A bell was used to call the townspeople to prayer meeting. But in 1760 the Northern Nations of Native Americans joined with the nations in the South in a war against the English. Bethabara and neighboring Bethany were now under constant threat of attack. That attack never came.

Hostile Indians came often very near their towns, with an intention to destroy them, and to kill the inhabitants or make them prisoners, but never ventured to make an attack. Often times, they were frightened by the ringing of the bell for the meeting at church, which meetings the brethren in both places kept regular on Sundays and every evening in the week.” – History of the Moravians in North Carolina, Page 1148 [1.]

The Moravians would learn of this Divine protection years later in the stories told by their Cherokee neighbors, many of whom embraced Christ as a result of their friendship with the Moravians.


Gemeinhaus at Bethabara.

Bethabara (from the Hebrew, meaning "House of Passage" and pronounced beth-ab-bra, the name of the traditional site of the Baptism of Jesus Christ) was a village located in what is now Forsyth County, North Carolina. It was the site where fifteen men from the Moravian Church first settled in 1753 in an abandoned cabin in the 100,000-acre (400 km2) tract of land the church had purchased from Lord Granville and dubbed Wachovia. Its early settlers were noted for advanced agricultural practices, especially their medicine Garden, which produced over fifty kinds of herbs. Although later parties of Moravians joined the first fifteen, including women and children, Bethabara was never meant to be a permanent settlement. It was intended to house the Moravians until a more suitable location for their central village could be found. In 1771, that place was completed: Salem. Many of the settlers moved to Salem, and Bethabara became an outlying farm to supply the residents of Salem and other Moravian villages with food. In 1788, a slave, Johann Samuel, was named superintendent of the farm; he was freed in 1801, though he continued to rent the land from the church. However, the village of Bethabara, as it existed, was no longer needed, and it fell into disuse. The original buildings collapsed, and their foundations were filled in to make more farm land. Only the church and a few other buildings continued in regular use.
– History of the Moravians in North Carolina

The War Room
New Film Explores the Power of Prayer

An Opportunity to Learn, Mere Christianity

C. S. Lewis: Mere Christianity

A Word for Our Time

In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. "How are we to live in an atomic age?" I am tempted to reply: "Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents."

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors - anaesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things - praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts - not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.”

- C.S. Lewis

Coronavirus and the Sun
[click to read]

A Lesson from the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

Fresh air, sunlight and improvised face masks seemed to work a century ago; and they might help us now. (read more)

Mere Christianity
[click to read]

The contents of this book were first given on the air, and then published in three separate parts as The Case for Christianity (1943), (*) Christian Behaviour (1943), and Beyond Personality (1945). In the printed versions I made a few additions to what I had said at the microphone, but otherwise left the text much as it had been. A "talk" on the radio should, I think, be as like real talk as possible, and should not sound like an essay being read aloud. In my talks I had therefore used all the contractions and colloquialisms I ordinarily use in conversation. In the printed version I reproduced this, putting don't and we've for do not and we have. And wherever, in the talks, I had made the importance of a word clear by the emphasis of my voice, I printed it in italics. (click to read)

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Narnia Painting, Through the Wardrobe, Psalm 91

Narnia Painting by Kristina Elaine Greer

Through the Wardrobe!
Capturing the Magic of Childhood Adventure


A new painting by Kristina Elaine Greer captures the magic of a journey to Narnia!

Narnia was born in troubled times. As the Nazis bombed London and children were being evacuated to the countryside, two girls came to stay with “the professor” C. S. Lewis at ‘The Kilns.’ One day Lewis found one of the girls playing in a wardrobe and the inspiration was planted. Lewis would weave his own journey to faith into the stories of this magical world, inspiring generations to follow. During the great war he would produce a series of talks for the BBC about faith that gave hope and comfort to a people besieged. Later those talks would become the basis for his book: Mere Christianity. This work, compiled by a layman, is considered one of the great works of Christian Apologetics. Now Kristina Elaine Greer, in a new painting of Narnia, brings the wonder of this world to a new generation!


Aslan!


























Can you find a reference to each of the Narnia Chronicles in the painting?

He was Sowin’ Love
By Bob Kirchman


“I don’t hide from you that I don’t detest the countryside — having been brought up there, snatches of memories from past times, yearnings for that infinite of which the Sower, the sheaf, are the symbols, still enchant me as before.” (Letter 628 to his friend and painter Émile Bernard, on or about June 19, 1888).

Vincent Van Gogh, Le semeur (The Sower), Mid-June 1888. Oil on canvas, 64 x 80,5 cm. Kröller-Müller Museum,The Netherlands

There seem to be two distinct personalities in our community of faith. On the one hand there is the person who simply “picked up the Bible and read it, finding between its covers the answers for life.” They tend to speak a lot at conferences. Then there is the person who is probably more like most of us, struggling to read through Scripture, often struggling to stay awake reading “through the Bible in a Year,” but getting little from it. Let’s be brutally honest. Some of us can quote Bible passages and recite the stories by rote. But where, if we may ask, is the “change” that it should bring in our lives? If you are in this category, you’ve probably never been invited to speak at a conference. But this is not a criticism of different personalities. It is a great place to ask the question “What do you see when you look at the Bible?” There is no wrong answer, but this is simply an invitation to look deeper into the writing with the goal of getting to know the Writer.

Indeed, there is a danger in simply knowing the text well. My reasoning runs along the lines of the study of immunology. Suppose you want to keep someone from getting a terrible disease. You give them a weakened or less harmful variant of the pathogen that could harm them. Edward Jenner in the eighteenth century gave non-fatal cowpox injections to people to protect them from smallpox, which was a more dangerous variation of the bovine disease. So with Scripture, the girl who simply picks up a Bible, knowing very little about it, reads for meaning and discovery. She is seeking. She will find. On the other hand, the guy who has been better taught might think he’s heard it all. He already knows what it says so he tunes out the process of discovery. For him it never becomes more than review.

All of which brings me to a wonderful daily devotional by Bishop Robert Barron on an old, well known story from Mark 4:1-20 – “The Sower and the Seed.” Most of us raised in the church know the story from memory. A farmer scatters his seed on good soil, rocky soil, amid thorns and even upon the path. Most people present that story and immediately go into a discussion of the meaning of the different types of soil. They are analogous to the relative conditions of our hearts. We hear the message and apply the different soils symbolically to ourselves. We quietly flag the need to consider the condition of our own hearts. We take in the message: “Prepare your heart.” It is a good message. But is it the real message Jesus meant to tell us? 

When Jesus told the story, he was telling it to a group of people who very likely were farmers themselves. Farmers don’t like to waste precious seed, and here’s a guy throwing seed EVERYWHERE! To a man of the soil it seems extravagant – yea even wasteful. But remember here that Jesus is talking about the Kingdom of God! Here is God Himself, the extravagant Sower! He gives Himself not only to those ready to respond, but to those who might be hard, those who might be least likely (in our human thinking) to respond. Bishop Barron writes: “God’s love is irrational, extravagant, embarrassing, unreasonable, completely over the top.” The question I must ask now is if I am adding something to Scripture that isn’t there. It is a valid question and in answering it one might turn to the other parables.

The Prodigal Son is an obvious next stop in our journey. We all know the story – one of two sons asks for his inheritance while his father is still alive. The son squanders his fortune and starves. He returns to his home, hoping to be accepted as a servant. His father welcomes him with great rejoicing! But what of the subject here is the extravagant love of the father! He’s so much in love with his sons – both of them, that he is willing to forgive what in the culture of the day must have been a terrible insult! He’s standing out where he can see someone’s approach from quite a distance! He see’s his lost son approaching. He RUNS to meet him! Remember that those who heard Jesus were in some cases landowners. They would have flinched at the insult and subsequent squandering of the family fortune – but they would have really squirmed at the telling that the father never stopped looking for the son who had declared him dead. Extravagant love! That is the message too big to get a handle on. But there is more! The lost sheep, the lost coin, the field containing great treasure; It is in the parables that Jesus hides the great recurring message of God’s extravagant love. It is here that we get a glimpse of just how much we are loved. Remember when you were younger and were writing and receiving letters from a special person. You’d scour them to find the expression between the lines. You hoped they cared as much for you as you cared for them! There would emerge thoughts they shared that created a connection that was nothing short of magical. So it is with the thoughts and phrases deliberately placed in Scripture. But you have to read them with the hope of discovery. You cannot read them as a simple list of examples to follow. You have to look for the heart of the writer! In doing so, will you apprehend the scale of God’s love for you? I write this with a prayer that you will.

I use to love to walk behind my daddy
As he plowed our garden every spring
Our little bare feet in the dirt would make me happy
As we talked about what harvest time would bring.
He’d say son this whole world is like a garden
And what you sow your surely gonna reap
Where bitter seeds are planted hearts will harden
But a caring hand will make the harvest sweet.

And he was sowin’ love for the family
Yeah, he was sowin’ love, he took a little extra time
Lookin’ forward to a bountiful harvest
Like a good father does he was sowin’ love.

And how I use to love and sit and watch my momma
Workin' with her needle and her thread
So patiently she’d listen to our problems
And we knew she heard every word we said.
She'd say “Children this old world is full of scratches
And in your life your bound to have a few.”
I guess that's why the good Lord gave us patches
So we could start each day out feelin’ new.

Yes, she was sowin’ love for the family
She was sowin’ love, she took a little extra time
Lookin’ forward to a bountiful harvest
Like a good momma does she was sowin' love.
– Paul Overstreet, Sowin’ Love

Hope and Promise for Our Troubled Times


Doves. Detail of a Mural by Kristina Elaine Greer and Bob Kirchman

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my G-d; in him will I trust.

Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;

There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.

He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.

With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation. 
– PSALM 91

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Norman Rockwell, The Mapmaker's Ethic III

Freedom of Speech by Norman Rockwell

Norman Rockwell's America

An exhibit entitled Norman Rockwell’s America is currently touring the country. We saw it in Winchester, Virginia. The show features some of the artist’s actual canvasses and many Saturday Evening Post Covers. In our age it was striking that Rockwell had a clear vision of our country. Here is his painting of “Freedom of Speech.” Rockwell captured the noble spirit of everyday Americans. Looking at the covers, one is impressed that America knew who she was in many ways – and she knew who her enemies were. Communism gets a pretty straight rebuke. Rockwell would go on to address the wrinkles as well, tackling issues such as segregation. The body of work is as great a picture of America as will ever exist. Moreover, the show gives us examples of Rockwell’s true mastery of his art – learning from the great masters.


In an era when America embraced her founding values, Rockwell painted Two Children Praying (1954) as a billboard advertisement for Longchamp's Restaurant in Union Square, New York.


In the painting The Young Valedictorian (1922) Rockwell captures lighting and color reminiscent of artists such as Degas and Rembrandt.


The Party after the Party (1922) was comissioned by General Electric (Edison Mazda) for a light bulb advertisment.


Volunteer Fireman. (1931)


The Runaway. (1922)


Acurracy Matters

The Mapmaker's Ethic III
Reliable Directions for an Important Journey

Maps are an important tool for navigating what is often to the user unknown regions. The users' success and ultimately their safety in the journey requires that the mapmaker strive to provide the most accurate depiction his or her art can produce of the ways of travel, their conditions, and possible dangers!

For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations." -- Psalm 100:5

Mapmakers strive for accuracy. Truth in the depiction of many details is essential to their work being trustworthy and safe. A wonderful old road atlas I acquired in my boyhood even went so far as to suggest a traveler make local inquiry before venturing onto some of the more obscure unpaved roads shown. After Hurricane Katrina I traveled to Waveland, Mississippi. The map said that U.S. 90 crossed Bay St. Louis on a bridge. We drove to the barricade at the end of route 90. The bridge had been washed away.

Many scholars, who would INSIST on accurate maps to guide them on the highway, scoff at the notion of "Absolute Truth" in the spiritual realm. They would NEVER seek to drive to Chicago subscribing to the notion that all roads are equally valid. Yet, when it comes to matters eternal, they reject the notion that there might indeed be specific direction available to them. Most likely they would find in Holy Writ some example of "Absolute Truth" similar to the now missing U.S. 90 bridge , and dismiss the veracity of ANY claim to "Absolute Truth." But they would be missing the mark.

No trucker, upon discovering the missing route 90 bridge, would throw his atlas out the window. Instead, he would probably take note that the atlas itself states that while every effort has been made to verify the information contained in the publication, errors or omissions are possible and contact information is provided for those observing such discrepancies to report them. The map, you see, is a hard record of an Earthscape that is changing. These changes are caused both by natural forces and the actions of mankind.

Yet the difficulty of documenting it in no way discredits the truth that an absolute set of conditions exists. Historical maps document well the succession of changes and if one will study maps, it may be argued, they will make wiser decisions as they travel. The very fact that maps are made argues that there is indeed a truth to be recorded. So it is, I would argue, with human history as well. If the Divine has indeed revealed eternal truths to mankind, and scribes have striven to record them accurately, as Jews and Christians have taught for centuries, then there must needs be maps for the world unseen as well.

Dismissing the validity of scripture because you find a prohibition on eating shellfish is similar to discrediting the use of maps because you fail to place it in context. A 1947 map of the United States will lack Interstate Highways, yet it would have shown you how to cross the country on the Mother Road, Route 66! That same route has been renamed I 40 in our times and is wider. Similarly Leviticus mapped a path for G-d's people in a time when eating shellfish was dangerous. In Leviticus 14, detailed procedures are given for dealing with mold in structures. I was tempted to conider such information 'archaic' until I attended a conference of the National Institute of Restoration.

It was there that I met a man who was severely disabled. He had been performing mold mitigation on a building and the work required him to go into many small spaces and resulted in exttended exposure to the mold. There are indeed different strains of mold (Leviticus describes this), and the kind this man encountered was the more dangerous kind. His heart had been severely damaged from his prolonged exposure to it. After meeting him I took the matter of mold in my own house, or that of a friend, very seriously. Scriptural guidelines on diet and hygene are actually quite helpful upon untering an unfamiliar culture.

The fact that Holy Writ comes in a series of books, all building upon previous revelation, might be analogous to the process of refining maps. Stop and think about it. There is so much information contained in historical maps that is still useful today. Moses shows you the beginnings of G-d's interactions with mankind. In Genesis we see the concept of IMAGO DEI, that mankind uniquely bears the image of his maker. Abraham is charged that through him: "All nations of the Earth shall be blessed." Redemption is seen in the calling out of an enslaved people to become a nation for that purpose.

History affirms the work of G-d in establishing a people, and yet read further. Isaiah 60 describes a road unseen that we have yet to travel. Just as Moses brought a promise that was fulfilled, the prophets bring more promise.

Can We Trust Our Maps?

As I was researching this article, I came across a very interesting article about Cartography as Wayfinding for the Soul [click to read]. Some may encounter such an article and scoff: "See, there is much that may be placed subjectively into maps." But consider this, just as my map of Middle Earth, created in my youth, described no actual country; but accurately represented the creation of J. R. R. Tolkien's fertile imagination. Even 'educational' maps may organize very real information in a subjective manner. Creating maps of Ice-Age Europe for CIVITAS, Kristina Elaine Greer and I placed icons of animals on them to describe the fauna of the time. Here the convention of icons might be seen to create an 'untruth,' for there are no Great Auks the size of New Jersey actually lying upon the landscape.

But is it an untruth? No. It is a convention that is understood across many cultures. Thus it may be useful to remember that Divine Revelation was handed to scribes who also inhabit their own set of cultural conventions in the use of language. Sometimes an honest exploration of idioms is necessary. I defy you to understand more recent writings, such as those of Shakespeare, without doing so.

Scripture 'scholars' at our great universities also are fond of "multiple authorship theories," that supposedly discredit Holy Writ. My own work as an artist suggested, however, a more plausible explanation. Looking back at my early attempts, I find they are often very different from my more 'mature' works. A mentor once scolded me for inconsistency. Writers as well will develop as they go along. Realizing that the writers of Holy Writ often began with no concept of the greater work intended by G-d, it is greater evidence for firsthand writing that it has not been 'smoothed.'

In fact, there is an 'Embarassement Factor' present in these works, for there is little or no attempt to smooth over those things that appear in Holy Writ that present a less than flattering picture of Kings, Prophets, Apostles and Patriarchs. You might want to remember this when randomly choosing passages to read to young children!

Importance of Investigation

Granted, there are scholars of the Bible who have taken it apart in their writings and present the conclusion that it is not truth. I would only ask them to go back and honestly check their work. The vast majority of those who resist the notion that faith is important have done little or no exploration on their own. Some honest seekers have indeed found themselves mired by the inexplicable problems of pain and evil. To them I would offer a piece of advice from a wise family member... that someone, somewhere in the household of faith has wrestled with these issues before you. Seek out their counsel.

G-d and Suffering

Isn't human suffering proof that a just, all-powerful G-d must not exist? On the contrary, says Boston College Professor of Philosophy Peter Kreeft. How can "suffering" exist without an objective standard against which to judge it? Absent a standard, there is no justice. If there is no justice, there is no injustice. And if there is no injustice, there is no suffering. On the other hand, if justice exists, G-d exists.An objective standard is indeed a solid mark on a map!


Boston College Professor of Philosophy Peter Kreeft.

The Mapmaker's Ethic Restated:

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." -- 2 Timothy 2:15

Paul the Apostle wrote these words to Timothy, his young apprentice in the Gospel ministry. I am priviledged to know a young man of our age who is not afraid to walk that same path. The young Minister stirs the soul as he clearly presents the Gospel from the classic texts on Faith. He is quick to reference good maps in doing so! Oh, the richness of Martin Luther's Preface to Romans!

This letter is truly the most important piece in the New Testament. It is purest Gospel. It is well worth a Christian's while not only to memorize it word for word but also to occupy himself with it daily, as though it were the daily bread of the soul. It is impossible to read or to meditate on this letter too much or too well. The more one deals with it, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes. Therefore I want to carry out my service and, with this preface, provide an introduction to the letter, insofar as God gives me the ability, so that every one can gain the fullest possible understanding of it. Up to now it has been darkened by glosses [explanatory notes and comments which accompany a text] and by many a useless comment, but it is in itself a bright light, almost bright enough to illumine the entire Scripture.

To begin with, we have to become familiar with the vocabulary of the letter and know what St. Paul means by the words law, sin, grace, faith, justice, flesh, spirit, etc. Otherwise there is no use in reading it." [1.]

The young Minister is concerned today with the matter of Faith. Though Faith is often mentioned, few unroll the great charts to plot its implications. The young Minister has no fear in doing so. He references Luther's thoughts on this great Truth:

Faith is not that human illusion and dream that some people think it is. When they hear and talk a lot about faith and yet see that no moral improvement and no good works result from it, they fall into error and say, "Faith is not enough. You must do works if you want to be virtuous and get to heaven." The result is that, when they hear the Gospel, they stumble and make for themselves with their own powers a concept in their hearts which says, "I believe." This concept they hold to be true faith. But since it is a human fabrication and thought and not an experience of the heart, it accomplishes nothing, and there follows no improvement.

Faith is a work of God in us, which changes us and brings us to birth anew from God (cf. John 1). It kills the old Adam, makes us completely different people in heart, mind, senses, and all our powers, and brings the Holy Spirit with it. What a living, creative, active powerful thing is faith! It is impossible that faith ever stop doing good. Faith doesn't ask whether good works are to be done, but, before it is asked, it has done them. It is always active. Whoever doesn't do such works is without faith; he gropes and searches about him for faith and good works but doesn't know what faith or good works are. Even so, he chatters on with a great many words about faith and good works.

Faith is a living, unshakeable confidence in God's grace; it is so certain, that someone would die a thousand times for it. This kind of trust in and knowledge of God's grace makes a person joyful, confident, and happy with regard to God and all creatures. This is what the Holy Spirit does by faith. Through faith, a person will do good to everyone without coercion, willingly and happily; he will serve everyone, suffer everything for the love and praise of God, who has shown him such grace. It is as impossible to separate works from faith as burning and shining from fire. Therefore be on guard against your own false ideas and against the chatterers who think they are clever enough to make judgements about faith and good works but who are in reality the biggest fools. Ask God to work faith in you; otherwise you will remain eternally without faith, no matter what you try to do or fabricate." [2.]

On High School Reunions
By Bob Kirchman

Oh wow! The invitation was a reminder of how the years have passed! As you read this my 50th high school reunion will have come – and passed. Yes it is a milestone. A lot of people would say “You should go.” But I shall pass. First of all, let me explain that being as I left home and now live out of state, the cost is a bit much. When I got the lovely invitation I did some simple math:

Ticket to the dinner at a country club and open bar: $125.00
Guest: ..............................................................................60.00
“Suggested” donation to the alumni fund: ....................100.00
Admission to the football game: ......................................Free!
Hotel room (Holiday Inn Express): ...............................211.00
Travel: ...........................................................................300.00+

Okay, we’re coming up on eight hundred dollars to relive one of the most awkward times in my life. I was the nerdy kid who did art, built little scale models in the basement and generally had no social life outside of church and life in our little town. I got picked on a lot. I learned to be patient with the societal pecking order and once in a while I would get in detention for punching back (funny how teachers seem to always nail retaliation). I did have a few good mates (mostly on yearbook staff). I did run cross country, but athletics was not my focus. I spent a lot of time in the woods. That led me to seek God. He was seeking me. The quiet helped me see that.

At this point it would be well for me to state that while I am a bit of an introvert, I am by no means antisocial. Yesterday we had a beautiful dinner with a pastor friend of mine who’s moving on to take a pastorate in Maryland. He, his wife and four (soon to be five) beautiful children enjoyed hanging out at the house and he told me of the move and mission before him. I met him at an overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I was in a sullen mood that day but his little daughter, in his arms, waved at me with the sweetest expression. I had to say hello.

It turns out he is a refugee from the terrible genocide in Rhwanda. He married an American girl from New Jersey and they eventually settled in Virginia. We became good friends – more we became family as I helped him with his youth ministry. For some reason Africans don’t think old guys are irrelevant in youth work. My point is that I do live surrounded by people who stretch me. I have taught art classes for homeschoolers. They are actually popular with the kids. I like people. I’m not as much of a recluse as you might think. But back to the reunion:

If I lived in town I’d probably go – at least to the game! I love a good high school game with all its pageantry. But do I really want to spend the cash and time to catch up with people I simply haven’t kept up with for five decades? Statistics say that 30% or less of your class actually will go to these things. I somehow sensed that this could be like those fancy dinners homebuilder’s associations put on monthly. You join and go to them for ‘networking.’ You meet a few good people who become great clients and friends, but mostly you end up at a table surrounded by cell phone salesmen.

There are a few guys I might really enjoy catching up with, but over the years I’ve found that you maintain direct contact with a few people you really enjoy and the rest you simply don’t. Again, high school is an experience a lot of us are happy to have put behind us. Rush Limbaugh once said “Go to your high school reunion. Seek out the popular kid who ‘had it all together.’ Get in a conversation with him or her and drop the remark: “You know, that was a really hard time for me.”” Rush says that they will inevitably say “Yeah, it was for me too.” Quite a revelation: Youth is difficult for all of us. Even the cool kids struggle.

And Rush, I’ll just have to take your word for it.


Uncle Rico remembers his glory days throwing the football in the movie Napoleon Dynamite.

Another Perspective
[click to read]

Elizabeth Dunkel has Quite a Different Perspective (read more)


Bridge, Paint Bank, Virginia. Photo by Bob Kirchman


Falling Spring Falls. Photo by Bob Kirchman


Falling Spring Falls. Photo by Bob Kirchman

On Driving SARS-CoV2 Extinct
[click to read]

By Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein

Why We Need a Multi-Pronged Approach

We are at a crossroads. There is a deadly virus circulating and out of control. Many have died, and many more certainly will. We can choose to use all available tools to eradicate this virus, or we can allow it to become a permanent fellow traveler, endemic to humanity. The first option has a high cost, but that cost is finite, largely ending when the disease ends. The second option is much worse. To the cost that we have already paid, add a continuing pattern of suffering and casualties going forward indefinitely. This toll is incalculable. Some have argued that it is already too late—an evolutionary hazard we warned about early in the pandemic—but we have yet to see a compelling argument to support this belief, and until such a case is made we, together, are morally obligated to pursue the eradication of Covid-19. (read more)

The Most Dangerous Plague of All
[click to read]

Just a year ago, Dr. Anthony Fauci was widely regarded as a wise, warm, grandfatherly medical expert whom Americans could trust to guide them safely through a frightening pandemic. Today, we know that besides ushering in the catastrophic long-term national lockdown based on absurdly flawed computer modeling, changing his positions on almost everything, and increasingly flat-out lying, Fauci ignored the U.S. government’s own ban on funding dangerous “gain of function” research and recklessly sent American taxpayers’ hard-earned money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to fund Frankenstein-type experiments to make bat coronaviruses more dangerous to humans. That is literally true. As U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, a medical doctor himself, recently concluded: “Fauci could be culpable for the entire pandemic.” (read more)

The Mapmaker's Ethic II

Acurracy Matters

The Mapmaker's Ethic II:
Reliable Directions for an Important Journey

Maps are an important tool for navigating what is often to the user unknown regions. The users' success and ultimately their safety in the journey requires that the mapmaker strive to provide the most accurate depiction his or her art can produce of the ways of travel, their conditions, and possible dangers!

No one would in any seriousness suggest that the only place that was significant or real was the part of the landscape he could see from his house, and that the rest, because it was unseen, either didn't exist or was of no consequence. Indeed, if you encountered such a person, you might refer to the most accurate map you could find. Pinpointing his house, you would proceed to show him the main arteries, the rivers, mountains and towns that await him outside of the realm he can see. Yet a scholar like Richard Dawkins can essentially use the same reasoning in writing The G-d Delusion and be lauded as brilliant!

But Dawkins as much as admits that he is 'not sure' if G-d exists in a discussion at Oxford University. [1.] It is time, I would say, to pull out the maps. Dawkins publicly dismisses religion because he feels it is the 'root of mankind's evils.' The problem is that if we look to history, we find a firm challenge to that mindset. In Why Religious Literacy Matters [click to read] we find that the evidence does NOT point us away from faith, rather it shows us instances where mankind has been lifted by something he clearly did not produce on his own.

One who wants to rest his argument on the premise that religion causes wars simply needs to look at the culture BEFORE the arrival of the religion he wishes to impune. In fact,honest history shows us that men's baser instincts resulted in a cycle of raiding and retribution LONG before white Christians ever arrived. Slavery existed for centuries where there was NO Christian influence, and succumbed to the influence of men like John Newton and William Wilberforce [2.] who were MOTIVATED by that faith.

The film: G-d's Not Dead [click to read] takes a look at the rational 'reasonable' men have for attacking faith. Indeed, the notion that unresolved evil discredits the existence of the Almighty is presented in a straightforward manner. The writings of great people OF faith, such as C. S. Lewis actually have much to say about this. The fact is that Lewis was as hard an Atheist as Dawkins, but guided by his friend and mentor: J. R. R. Tolkein, he found himself: "The most reluctant convert in all of England!"

The Catholic Tolkein had at his disposal a vast library of fine maps. The Christian recognizes Moses and the Prophets, just as G-d's Chosen do. Looking first to those texts that claim the authority of Divine Authorship through Inspired Writers, one then overlays them with good history to see what they reveal. It is not at all unlike the exercise employed in creating my historical map of Rockbridge County. [3.] One may wish to question the accuracy of the historic texts, but here more history witnesses to their reliability.

981 texts on scrolls discovered between 1946 and 1956 at Khirbet Qumran in the West Bank inside caves about a mile inland from the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Nabataean, mostly on parchment but with some on papyrus and bronze, are associated with the Essenes.What is fascinating is the fact that more modern texts are spot-on with these ancient manuscripts, save for a few punctuations and such.

The scribes who copied these documents worked to an ethic as rigorous as that of the mapmaker. A scribe would 'practice' reproducing texts and his work would be rejected for so much as a character omitted or out of place. Dawkins likes to claim that "we are all atheists" concerning most of the gods people have worshiped. Put it in the perspective though, that most such 'dieties' were slimly documented local gods associated with seasons, fertility and harvest. In 1 Kings 18:40 we see the prophet Elijah take on the priests of Baal. There were many such dieties, seemingly demanding that mankind placate them in return for good harvest.

Gods like Molech demanded the sacrifice of children by burning them. Indeed, if the G-d of Creation is like them then Dawkins has a point. But that the great body of revealed Scripture teaches a people that through them: "All the Nations of the Earth shall be blessed." and in a world of raiding and retribution teaches the new concept of kindness toward the stranger who lives in your midst, then we need to reexamine the wholesale dismissal of faith. The map will not allow us to.

Also, quite importantly, the Mapmaker's Ethic requires that we draw an accurate representation of faith as it runs through the landscape that we inhabit. We need to see the true course that it runs. That means we consider accurately the Crusades as well as Dorethea Dix and Florence Nightingale, who motivated by their faith, made strides in the care for the mentally ill and in the profession of nursing, respectively. We need to consider the very real occurrence of hypocrisy: those who speak in terms of faith but do not live as it requires. History is full of these as well.

But it must be noted that people of faith have often stood against the viler things. Slavery was maintained by professing Christians in the United States until the Abolition, but it was the teachings of Christianity itself that led to that Abolition. Martin Luther King's famous demand: "Let MY people go!" is a restatement of Moses' demand of Pharaoh.

Glimpses into a World Unseen

The electron microscope further reveals amazing patterns.


Vertical section of the human dna.

Evidence of Divine Design, Great and Small
"The Heavens Declare the Glory of G-d;
The Skies Proclaim the Work of His Hands." -- Psalm 19:1


Moth wing pattern.

I saw this little creature outside my studio one morning. It got me reflecting on the creative wonder, both large and small, that surround us.


M 51 Spiral Galaxy, NASA photo from the Hubble Space Telescope.


Detail of the 'X Structure' in M 51, NASA photo from the Hubble Space Telescope.

The artist is amazed. So much beauty and wonder in the very large cosmos and in the very small things as well! Can a G-d who spins galaxies into being be concerned with things small and personal? Such order and grace in the extreme scales of our world, yet often what we see before us is chaotic and makes no sense.

That is why we present here Lee Strobel's Case for a Creator. Also recommended are Strobel's Case for Faith and Case for Christ. If you had stepped into that Bethlehem stable many years ago, you would have not necessarily seen beauty and redemption. The smells of animals and the pain of labor and delivery would have overwhelmed contemplation. Yet Christians around the world will contemplate the wonder of that night; for what happened there ultimately made its mark on human history.


The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel.

(to be continued).

The Mapmaker's Ethic, a Guide for Our Times

Accuracy Matters

The Mapmaker's Ethic:
Why Accuracy Matters

The song still haunts... Gordon Lightfoot's "Ballad of the Edmund Fitzgerald" has an eerie hold on my generation, especially those of us who considered joining the merchant marine or heading to Alaska to seek our fortunes. I never went to sea on the Great Lakes, but the song became a part of me. I have been in storms on the Chesapeake Bay, so I can imagine somewhat the tempest that raged on Superior in mid-November of 1975. The song chronicles the actual voyage of the ship they called the "Big Fitz" as she mysteriously sank that year. The song talks about an extremely violent storm and a "main hatchway" giving in.  Many of the crew were the same age as I would have been, had I served among them. That such a great ship would simply vanish, and her crew along with her, was the stuff great mysteries are made of.


Discovery Channel Special on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The discovery of this special program rekindled my fascination with this great ship and her lost crew. The assumption (in the Lightfoot song, and by the Coast Guard) was that she somehow took water from topside. The Coast Guard asserted that a main hatch was improperly clamped and the ship took water when the storm somehow caused the great hatch to come loose. That is not a very good explanation, however, and the documentary goes into some detail as to what the more likely cause was. The S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was originally built by the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The contractor was Great Lakes Engineering Works of Ecorse, Michigan. Her keel was laid on August 7, 1957 as Hull No. 301. Named after the President and Chairman of the Board of Northwestern Mutual, the Edmund Fitzgerald was launched June 8, 1958 at River Rouge, Michigan. Northwestern Mutual placed her under permanent charter to the Columbia Transportation Division of Oglebay Norton Company, Cleveland, Ohio. At 729 feet and 13,632 gross tons she was the largest ship on the Great Lakes, for thirteen years, until 1971.

The huge ship was built for hauling iron ore pellets from Minnesota to the steel mills on the lower Great Lakes. Lake Superior, known to the Native Americans as Gitchee Gumee, is a great inland sea and known for its fierce Winter storms. Shipping on the St. Lawrence Seaway ceased in Winter, but tonnage bonuses, paid to ship's captains and crew, tempted them to try to squeeze in trips even as mid-November's harsh weather approached. So it was that the Fitzgerald, captained by Ernest M. McSorley took on a load of iron ore pellets November 9, 1975 at the Burlington Northern Railroad Dock No.1, Superior, Wisconsin. She was joined by the Arthur Anderson, captained by Bernie Cooper. The two ships set a course for Sault Ste Marie, at the Eastern side of Superior.

A severe storm caught the ships as they made their way down the main shipping channel in the center of the lake. The experienced captains decided to seek a more sheltered route along the Northern shore. The storm became even more violent as two storm cells merged over the great body of water. Large waves rolled up on the ships. As the Fitzgerald approached Caribou Island, her crew was unaware of the dangerous Six Fathom Shoal beneath her. The map was wrong! Pounded by the waves, her captain probably didn't notice the sound of her bottoming out. At 3:30 pm, however, he knew he was taking on water and had some sort of serious damage. McSorley radioed Cooper:  "Anderson, this is the Fitzgerald. I have a fence rail down, two vents lost or damaged, and a list. I'm checking down. Will you stay by me till I get to Whitefish?" The Big Fitz slowed her speed and the Anderson began to close the ten mile gap between the two vessels.

Now the injured Fitzgerald set a course for the shelter of Whitefish Bay. As evening set in two monstrous waves rolled over the Anderson. Cooper reports that this happened about 6:55 pm: "Then the Anderson just raised up and shook herself off of all that water - barrooff - just like a big dog. Another wave just like the first one or bigger hit us again. I watched those two waves head down the lake towards the Fitzgerald, and I think those were the two that sent him under." The First Mate of the Anderson, Morgan Clark, kept in radar contact and voice communication with the Fitzgerald:

"Fitzgerald, this is the Anderson. Have you checked down?"

"Yes, we have."

"Fitzgerald, we are about 10 miles behind you, and gaining about 1 1/2 miles per hour. Fitzgerald, there is a target 19 miles ahead of us. So the target would be 9 miles on ahead of you."

"Well, am I going to clear?" McSorley radioed back.

"Yes, he is going to pass to the west of you."

"Well, fine."

"By the way, Fitzgerald, how are you making out with your problems?"

"We are holding our own."

"Okay, fine, I'll be talking to you later." [1.]

But the words, "We are holding our own." spoken around 7:10 pm that evening, were the last communication from the Edmund Fitzgerald. As the seas calmed, an ill-equipped Coast Guard asked the Anderson and several other vessels to search for the Edmund Fitzgerald, but she had vanished. Bits of debris and the twisted half of a lifeboat were all that were spotted. The Gales of November had claimed the great ship and she rested in two parts on the bottom of Lake Superior. Her crew was not to be found.


The map used by Captain Ernest M. McSorley showed Six Fathom Shoal one mile off of its actual position.

A mile's discrepancy in a map! That is the most likely cause of the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald. No doubt, the error lay in obscurity until violent weather forced two great ships into the area that was wrongly depicted. Comparison has been made to the sinking of the Daniel J. Morell in 1966 where the ship was probably slammed to the bottom by a wave as well and broke in two. One man survived the Morell. [2.] No one survived the Fitzgerald.

The fact that lives depend on their accuracy has always been the ethic guiding the making of maps. In ancient times, the far edges that were not very well charted often bore the legend: “there are monsters!” or “There Be Dragons!” Such was the way of warning that there was no data for those particular waters. Satellite imagery and sophisticated survey methods have put the monsters to rest, but the need for accuracy is ever greater.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." -- Psalm 119:105

As a child I became fascinated with maps. Colorful representations of actual faraway places intrigued me. What lay over the horizon waiting to be discovered? Maps pointed the way. Drawings of places unseen, yet when I got my first car, they reliably pointed the way to many adventures. Sometimes it was fun to just get in the car and drive, but if you wanted to go to Rehoboth Beach or Ocean City, you consulted the map!

When I was in high school, I drew a detailed map of Middle Earth that probably still hangs in a closet in my sister's house. It was the accurate representation of a land in a legend, in my adult career I would go on to accurately represent architectural concepts... but somehow I always returned to the map! Researching for author Rob Hewitt, I discovered that you could overlay old maps on modern ones and that they would tell you a story. Modern roads closely followed old turnpikes. Old turnpikes followed the routes of Native American commerce and migration. The overlay of maps told a very true history of the regions they depicted. [3.]

Our studio produced educational maps for the Core Knowledge Foundation and a few years ago I collaborated with artist Kristina Elaine Greer to produce similar maps for the Civitas Foundation in Great Britain as they reproduced the Core Knowledge Series for a British audience. [4.] Over the years, creating maps, there has come to me an awareness of what I would call: The Mapmaker's Ethic! Simply stated it would be thus:

Maps are an important tool for navigating what is often to the user unknown regions. The users' success and ultimately their safety in the journey requires that the mapmaker strive to provide the most accurate depiction his or her art can produce of the ways of travel, their conditions, and possible dangers!

You would never accept as serious advice the notion that you could just get in your car and start driving; for "all roads will get you to Atlanta." Such would be a foolish waste of time and resources. Yet many who would never embark upon a journey without carefully consulting maps scoff at the notion that there might be solid information about the unseen world as well.

Just as there are a sequence of historical maps and modern ones that tell us important information about the ways we travel, there exists documentation of the unseen world as well. To be sure, some of them are as fanciful as the map of Middle Earth that depicts a land of a story, but are there a succession of historical maps that overlay like those of a historical region, that might indeed point to direction both in our life here and now and in our life to come? And if indeed such charts exist, what is the ethic under which they are produced? Do they build upon prior revelation to provide a complete picture?

If indeed, mankind is eternal, the question is a good one, for if that is indeed so, then most of our 'journey' lies outside of the county we presently reside in! Some will assert that this world is all that is. I would only ask of them: "Are you SURE?" If not, then I would ask them to consider what charts they might need for a longer journey? Some are not ready to consider a journey of such magnitude. They may detrain here if that is so, and are welcome to come aboard again when they so desire. Some may simply be curious. To them I say: "Ride along for a while. It will do you no harm." Finally there are those who feel certain that there is more. To them I say: "Come sit at the head of the train and see where the journey might lead."

What Can Amish Values Teach Us?
[click to read]

When most people think of the Amish, the first thing that comes to mind is probably not a magazine. But Marlin Miller isn’t most people. Marlin is the publisher of Plain Values, a magazine that brings good news, stories of inspiring people doing good, and opportunities to make a difference to more than 300,000 readers nationwide, many of them Amish. (read more)

“There Be Dragons”
[click to read]

Research suggests vaccine-linked COVID variants could be a problem. Joseph Mercola writes. (read more)