Salty Zebra

  Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Prase ye the LORD.   Psalm106:48 KJV  Amen. You’ve read it. You’ve said it. Do you know what it means? What do you mean when you say it? Charles Spurgeon in his commentary on Psalm 106 shares that, “It has been adopted, and without translation retained, in all languages in which the gospel of Jesus the Son of David is preached.” Webster reflects similarly that, “This word, with slight differences or orthography, is in all the dialects of the Assyrian stock.” He goes on to share its meaning, “As a verb, it signifies to confirm, establish, verify; to trust, or give confidence; as a noun, truth, firmness, trust, confidence; as an adjective, firm, stable. In English, after the oriental manner, it is used at the beginning, but more generally at the end of declarations and prayers, in the sense of, be it firm, be it established.” As Spurgeon so neatly summarized, amen mean...

  How can I repay the LORD for all his acts of kindness to me? I will celebrate my deliverance, and call on the name of the LORD.   Psalm 116:12-13  Jesus’ last night on Earth, prior to His resurrection, was one filled with drama. He sent His disciples to prepare the Passover feast in a room that had already been made ready for them. There, He told them ahead of time that one of them would betray Him, someone who had dipped their bread into the same bowl. He shared with them the first communion, telling them that the bread represented His body, broken for them and the cup represented the blood of the covenant, His blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins. They sang hymns together, one of which was Psalm 116, our passage for today, then they went out to the Garden of Gethsemane. Here Jesus prayed deeply and poignantly, to the point where He sweat drops of blood ( Luke 22:44 ), but the disciples were so worn out that they could not stay awake, keeping vigil with Him....

  Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing regular posts about how I'm preparing for radiation. I'm hoping these can help someone else, as I struggled to find a conversational source like this that dealt with the subject. For more information on my brain tumor, check out these posts .    Whether because of an accident, serious illness, or natural aging, we will all face the end of our lives. If you're breathing, this pertains to you. Most of us don't want to think about dying though, I know I didn't, and so we put off conversations and avoid thinking about our preferences when it comes to end of life care. Sadly, that can result in our loved ones being put in a difficult position of not knowing what we would want and having to make choices on our behalf, choices that can be difficult or even traumatizing, and may not be what we would prefer at all. How can we avoid that burden being put on those closest to us? By thinking ahead a little and recording our prefere...

  Your loyal followers trust in you, for you, LORD, do not abandon those who seek your help. Psalm 9:10  Do you ever come to God with a request, secretly wondering in your heart if He can or will fulfill it? I think David and the other psalmists definitely felt this way, so you are not alone. You see over and over in the psalms where they remind God of His promises and essentially call Him out, saying “Surely You won’t fail us!” But as they wrote these words to God, they were writing them for themselves as well. They were telling themselves, “Of course God will not let us down. He never has and He never will!” Oftentimes we need to be reminded of this truth, and what better way than by praising God for all He has done.   We can “know” that God is good and mighty to save, but when we focus on our problems , it’s easy to forget that. Here the psalmist encourages us to trust in God’s promises and truth, knowing that He will not leave us to shame. Over and over this is ...

  For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.   Romans 8:38-39 RSV Nothing can separate us from the love of God: Not Death : For absent from the body means I will be present with the Lord. ( 2 Corinthians 5:8 ) Not Life : There are many distractions and temptations in this life. But, in Christ, as we walk in the Holy Spirit, we will see them for what they are and be able to choose life with Him instead. ( Galatians 5:16 ) Not Angels : Ok, this one confused me a little. Why would angels want to separate us from God? But as I looked into it, according to Matthew Henry , this can refer to both “good angels” and “bad angels,” or demons. Remember, Satan and his army of demons were once angels and fell from heaven when they rebelled against God. And God’s Word s...

  Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing regular posts about how I'm preparing for radiation. I'm hoping these can help someone else, as I struggled to find a conversational source like this that dealt with the subject. For more information on my brain tumor, check out these posts .    When we found out that I was going to have to do radiation therapy, my husband started dreaming of a lounge. Initially it was called the "Rest Room", but when we talked about it, it sounded a lot like restroom, and that's just a strange place to hang out with people 😂, so my kids renamed it the "Lounge." Always with taking care of me front-of-mind, he wanted to make sure he'd be able to keep an eye on me and be available if I needed him while I recuperated from radiation. In February, my son moved into his own home and vacated the room across the hall from my husband's office, creating the perfect space. That way, my husband could work and still feel like ...