the.slow.down

nothing profound to report other than the amazing emotional effect of a beautiful day that follows a gray depressing day. there is something so liberating and hope giving about sitting in the sun and reading, reflecting and thinking and praying, sipping on a cup of coffee with a nice cool breeze at your back… small gifts of encouragement and hope amidst so many overpowering questions, seemingly insurmountable challenges, and world atrocities and need that stagger and stun.

isn’t that just beautiful….

one of the benefits of not having a “popular” blog is that you can mess it up, and not sweat it. like, “oh man, all my visitors are going to be so disappointed. i better get this fixed tonight.” then you stay up till like 2am and work like crazy to try and fix some css, that you don’t really understand. i mean that i don’t understand…

so i think this is working, but if for some reason stuff looks broke to you please let me know….

hey if you support our ministry (or not) you can check out our latest update right here….

“it’s a hostile environment to grow up in a family.”
- neil kring
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From our review of the historical situation in the previous chapter it appears that the pressing needs of most Jews of the period had to do with liberation–from oppression, from debt, from Rome.  Other issues, I suggest, were regularly seen in this light.  The hope of Israel, and of most special-interest groups within Israel, was not for post mortem disembodied bliss, but for a national liberation that would fulfill the expectations aroused by the memory, and regular celebration, of the exodus, and, nearer at hand, of the Maccabaean victory.