The Gospels of Rome

by   September 9, 2022 with No Comments

By Roger Barbee

The Gospels and Rome

Jesus and the Empire of God

Warren Carter

Cascade Books, 2021

Carter wastes no time in explaining his use of cultural intertextuality avenue for reading and studying the Gospels. He reminds us that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John composed while Rome ruled: “The empire does not disappear from the Gospels just because an emperor or  governor or soldier or tax is not mentioned.” He then uses selected Gospel texts alongside Roman texts to create an opportunity for the reader to “make meaning in the intersections among them.”

Intertextuality is an interesting way to read the Gospels and while I had unknowingly done it in the past, I had not been aware of its wide range. For instance, one of the Gospel stories that Carter uses is the scene where Jesus instructs two disciples to go into Jerusalem and they will find a donkey with here colt tied. If asked, the disciples are to say that the Master needs them. Jesus then rides the donkey into Jerusalem.

Carter shows how this well-known arrival by Jesus, where he is greeted by the screaming crown, is like the manner a Roman ruler or victorious general would enter a city.  He cites many historical accounts to support and then compare the entry of Jesus with that of Augustus, Gaius, and Titus into Rome or other locations.

I enjoyed Carter’s examination of the Gospels by intertextuality because it directly shows the Roman world that Jesus lived in with all its problems: “Rome-sanctioned, Jerusalem-based local leaders, pervasive sickness, food insecurity, occupied territory, language of sovereignty, fantasies of revenge, and visions of a new and just world all interact with Roman imperial structures and [practices.” Carter in those words shows us the world in which Jesus walked and preached. It should give us encouragement for the world we face.

Some Fun in Louisiana

by   September 8, 2022 with No Comments

By David Freeze

 I knew today’s ride would be a challenge from the start. Rain was again in the forecast and at least the first part of the ride was going to be hilly. Still a little bit dark because of the clouds, I hit the road anyway. Out of food, I got two awesome egg and cheese biscuits first thing in a convenience store while still in Natchez. Following that was a 6 mile climb that finally ended at a store called the Big Hill. At least I knew it was the most significant one after that.


   At least one reader was confused about why Mississippi is hilly after I said it was pancake flat in the Delta part of the state. I was surprised too, because when I got to Vicksburg the hills were back in a big way. That is why the Confederacy had the high ground in the battles there and the hills continued until I had been in Louisiana for a few miles. This part of Louisiana is about like Rowan County,  some hills and some flat but nothing too extreme.


    My only goal at the start was to follow US 61 South through a little town called Woodville and get to the Louisiana border by noon. Woodville was the only town for the whole morning and the last one in Mississippi. I kept pushing and made 46 miles and the Louisiana border at 12:03, close enough. At the state sign, I got a full lane to ride in and the terrain started to calm down.


   I pedaled past town signs that didn’t have much or any town including Laurel Hill, Wakefield, Bains and Hardwood, then suddenly St. Francisville was busy with heavy traffic. All morning since Natchez and on down to near Baton Rouge, historic antebellum mansions were set back from the road. I only got a good glimpse of one, but still far away. Many are now bed and breakfast locations.


    I stopped at a post office in Louisiana and shipped a box of stuff home, my sleeping bag and a lot of materials gathered along the way. It filled the largest “one price” box to the brim and I have more room to pack my stuff for the train.


    Rain fell off and on all morning, not hard enough for a jacket, and any wind was significant. Then it cleared in the afternoon and got hot. Ahead toward Baton Rouge, storms with dark blue clouds started to build as I got closer. I saw what may be the oddest thing I have ever seen beside a busy road about this time, a long stack of goods that were covered in tarps. Just feet away from very busy traffic. Looking closely, I could see people under tarps too, just waiting for the rain to come. They must push or pull the goods by foot because no powered vehicles were there.


    Worried about the storm myself, I didn’t have a room and needed to get one. I called the Comfort Inn to see if my new choice membership would help. Most importantly, I needed something sort of on the way to New Orleans. This morning, I decided if all went well today, then I would make an attempt to reach New Orleans tomorrow. Precious, the desk clerk, went to work and helped me get a reasonable deal. With the storm building and very close, I pedaled the last 6.5 miles for all that I was worth, arriving about 2 minutes before the downpour. Along the way was a beautiful rainbow, in a part of the sky where the rain had already fallen.


    Greater Baton Rouge is approaching 500,000 people and heavily industrialized city. It is the northernmost port on the Mississippi capable of handling today’s mega sized ships. During most of the Civil War, the city was occupied by the Union Army.


   I am across from the Baton Rouge airport, with a nice window overlooking it. I did have Blue Bunny banana split ice cream while planning for tomorrow. Thanks for reading and riding along. See you back here tomorrow!

Heavy Rain and Hills…

by   September 6, 2022 with No Comments

By David Freeze

  Sometime during last night, I heard a huge clap of thunder. I didn’t think much of it but this morning’s forecast had changed to heavy rain for most of the day. Just light drizzle early, off and on at that, didn’t bother me too much. What bothered me more was how suddenly lots of climbing was back in the mix. I learned last night that a long series of faults between Vicksburg and Natchez would override the flat riding that I came to love.


    Most of the agricultural traffic and some of the other commercial traffic probably was lessened due to the rain, but visibility was poor enough that some of the trucks still got pretty close. Rumble strips all morning just added to the pressure to stay safe.


    The first town today, still on US 61 South, was Port Gibson. Lots of beautiful old homes and rough roads, but the reason the town exists in its current manner is because General Grant decided not to burn it, saying, “This town is too beautiful to burn!” Just as I was leaving town, I spotted a sign about the Natchez Trace Parkway just ahead, sort of a linear National Park that stretches for 444 miles. It’s known as a Holy Grail for adventure cyclists, famous for its well kept scenery and history. Just yesterday, Layne Logue, one of the many people I met during the day, told me that I should try some of it. I told him that I likely wouldn’t because it is secluded and just long segments of singular riding, Cars are allowed, but nothing commercial.


    With the rain, rumble strips and “too close for comfort” trucks, I decided to ride a portion of the Natchez Trace, just to gather my thoughts without traffic and bad roads. It does have long grades but no steep hills, and is amazingly well kept. For 31 miles, I pedaled in the rain and made up some of the time that I lost earlier. US 61 crosses the parkway twice and I got on the first time and off 31 miles later. Time well spent!  At least once I thought of giving up for the afternoon and stopping at a motel in Port Gibson, but the parkway saved a 78 mile day.


   US 61 passed through Washington and then suddenly, I had found the outer limits of Natchez. I already had the Deluxe Inn lined up for a room, and it just happened to be near the river. I rode to the two bridges that cross into Louisiana and back, got some good photos, grabbed some food from a local grocery and got started on my daily report.


   I’m about 40 miles from Louisiana and Siri says 185 or so to New Orleans. I will start looking for accommodation options shortly, especially with rain still an option for tomorrow. I will get really close to an area where I passed through Louisiana just after Hurricane Ida.  Believe it or not, I will mostly use US 61 South all the way to New Orleans. There is something special about these really long associations with certain highways. I just hope it loses the rumble strips in Louisiana.


    No ice cream today, but I will find some tomorrow. Join me back here as we go visit Louisiana again. Thanks for riding along!

Angels in the Room

by   September 6, 2022 with No Comments

By Ann Farabee

My family and I were coming home from a trip when I got the call that a close friend was in the last hours of her earthly life. When I arrived outside her hospital room door, I was told by family members and her nurse that her eyes had been fixed on the top corner of the room all day and she had not responded to anyone. They all said that she had been waiting on me. As I walked in and whispered her name, she fleetingly glanced my direction before looking back to that corner of the room that had her fixated.

I knew immediately what was going on — angels were in the room. They had come to usher her home.

Still whispering, I asked her, “You see Jesus, don’t you?”

Her eyes did not move, but for a fleeting second, I felt a faint squeeze of her hand in mine. With tears of grief and love in my eyes, I was amazed that God was allowing me to be with her in this moment. My whispering continued,“You see angels don’t you? They are in that corner, aren’t they?” She blinked.

“Go!” I said. “Go to Jesus. The angels came to get you!”

Her trip from earth to heaven was in its final moments and I could feel the thickness of the presence of the Holy Spirit filling the hospital room. Her day of eternal healing was here, and she would be crossing the bridge between earth and heaven at any moment. It almost felt as if I would be going with her, but I knew I had gone as far across that bridge with her as earth would allow at this moment in time.

This was her day to become a citizen of heaven. This was her day to go to the Father’s house, and her day to be seated in heavenly places.

Her earthly breathing — which had been labored for several days — stopped.

But the breath of God remained, filling every corner of the room and ushering in the sweet savor of our Savior’s love, grace and mercy that we could never even begin to understand.

She was gone. She was now with Jesus — her Lord and Savior.

According to 2 Timothy 1:10, death has been abolished by Jesus. John 14:2 says when we die, we will go to the Father’s house.

Acts 7:56 says, we will go to be with Jesus at the right hand of God, and according to Ephesians 2:6, He has raised us up where we will sit in heavenly places. Philippians 1:21 says that for us to live is Christ and to die is gain.

According to Philippians 3:20, we will be citizens of heaven, Philippians 3:21 says Jesus will change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like His glorious body, and 2 Corinthians 5:8 says absence from the body means being present with the Lord.

Background Story

by   September 5, 2022 with No Comments

By Lynna Clark

So, what’s your story? Where have you been? When was the first time you realized that you couldn’t be good enough to earn Heaven? Who helped you understand that you needed a Savior, Someone to cover the unsightly details of your life when you stand before a holy God?

Let me give you a little peek into my story. I was brought up in church, but didn’t get the whole “You need a Savior” business. I figured I was decent enough. Once when we were headed home from church, we passed the Baptist parking lot. They were gettin’ outa Dodge, and we nearly got run over. My dad said, with his dry humor, “You have ta watch out for them Baptist. They think they know where they’re going when they die!” I never dreamed it was true. Who could know such a thing?

One night, my boyfriend asked me to a youth meeting at a friend’s home. Lame, I thought. Oh well, there’s nothing better to do on a Thursday night. So sitting on a carpet square, singing “Give me unction in my gumption, let me function, function, function,” and … all together now, “Give me wax on my board, keep me surfin’ for the Lord…”, I understood for the first time that I actually needed Jesus to stand for me before His holy Father. The youth pastor, with a gentleness I had never heard, explained 1st John 5:13, and I knew for the first time that I could know… just because I asked Him to save me. So I did. While guitars played, and some dude thumped a cord hooked to a pole on a washtub, I raised my hand to say that, yes, I am trusting. I want to be Yours dear Lord. And with that, I became his daughter forever.

Thank the good Lord, my then boyfriend, later became my now husband, and we have skipped happily through life together ever since! … Well except for the skipping part. So anyway, are you willing to tell your story? Someone needs to hear it. The section in Nehemiah we covered yesterday gave a few stories in all those numbers. That’s the interesting part. You have a story and you are loved. The Lord is honored when we tell what He has brought us through. And, it helps us know He will get us through whatever comes next, because we are His. Consider telling or writing your story this week. You’ll be surprised how it will help you speak to others about the Lord. Today, ask the Lord how to use your unique background to praise Him.

Lord, strengthen me to be honest about my past. I bring my hurts, and victories, to You, and ask You to turn them into praise. Strengthen me to continue my story for Your glory.

More: 1 John 5:13; John 20:31; Titus 3:5,6

“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!” –Psalm 107:1 KJV

“Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will give us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who His children really are!” -Romans 8:18,19

Some Things Unexpected…

by   September 4, 2022 with No Comments

By David Freeze

  Cloudy and very humid from the start, I pedaled out of Hollandale without a visible sunrise. For the first 10 miles, I rode inside the lane with light traffic. Most of the traffic seemed farm related and patient enough with me, but I was glad to have a red flashing rear light working well.


   Panther Burn passed by but looked more like a big farm. Then came Nitta Yuma, getting my attention right away from the bike seat. At least nine of the buildings in this little community are antebellum, meaning from the 1700’s. Once with 600 residents, only about 20 remain and change comes hard to them. The little town has gained some world wide attention. Next was Anguilla where I finally got a good breakfast deal on two awesome egg, cheese and tomato biscuits.   


   Rolling Fork was next, then Cary, Valley Park and Redwood. Enough good stores with ice available. I made great time with a wind that couldn’t decide what to do. About 40 miles of the 70 mile trip was on recently paved road, mostly without rumble strips. I met Quentin at one of the paving spots today where he was flagman and we had a nice conversation about my trip.


    Surprising, but it shouldn’t have been, as I neared Vicksburg, hills came back. A couple serious ones after more than 60 miles of pancake flat. I just called on my Missouri muscles and noticed that the Yazoo River was part of that mix. About that time, I saw a sign for downtown Vicksburg but needed some answers from Sue and MacKenna who own the Country Junction restaurant where I had stopped. Just up ahead was a huge hill to continue on US 61, and a flat entrance exited toward Vicksburg. Sue said to take the flat exit and that it would all work out.


    Still about six miles of rough roads and plenty of trucks on the way to the Vicksburg Port kept me wary, but I finally made the downtown. The river was not the Mississippi, but it used to be there. I stopped at the Jesse Brent Lower Mississippi River Museum and got the scoop. The river used to be here but moved away, leaving the Yazoo to serve as a canal for light shipping. Attached to the museum was the Mississippi lV towboat, a huge boat that was driven by diesel power.
   Also I learned at the visitor center within the museum that no ongoing downtown tours are available, a big surprise and disappointment to me. Hannibal does well with theirs and Vicksburg is loaded with way more significant old buildings, notable people, and of course the Vicksburg National Military Park.


   Speaking of the park, that’s where I headed next. Just in time to see a great movie about what happened to residents during the Civil War, I think the story is fascinating. The Union attacked several times and couldn’t take the entrenched town because the Confederates had the high ground. Yet, Lincoln and Grant decided to “out camp” them, blockading the city so that no food could get in. The Confederates had to surrender and with it came control of the Mississippi and splitting the Confederacy in half.


    To get into the military park, I used my lifetime senior pass purchased out west a few years ago for $10. A great deal! Speaking of that, the Y Service Club at the South Y has decided to renew my ice cream fund after all!


    Finally, as I was leaving the military park, Layne Logue, a civil engineer and wilderness canoe expedition leader, stopped me for a some great conversation about my cycling and his canoeing. He takes big canoes out on the Mississippi and goes camping on sandbars, all sounding like great fun to me. He sent me great suggestions by email for my trip tomorrow to Natchez.


    I’m in the best room of my trip yet, a first class Quality Inn. Trina, who signed me in, also said the breakfast shouldn’t be missed. I won’t.


    A big day, full of people, and now onto Natchez. If all goes well, tomorrow will be my last full day in Mississippi. Since Vicksburg turned out to not be on the real river, I have been assured that Nachez is. You’ll hopefully get photos of it tomorrow. Join me back here for that!

How Do You Handle Problems?

by   September 3, 2022 with No Comments

By Doug Creamer

How Do You Handle Problems?

            Life has good days and bad days. If you are experiencing the steadiness of life…enjoy it. Don’t be surprised when something wonderful comes along and takes you to cloud nine. Then there might be that sudden dip in your pleasant road. Life is always interesting and ever-changing.

            When life takes a little dip, we all adjust and life soon returns to its normal routine. We might get frustrated and even mad at the circumstances, but given time our emotions will return to their normal levels. Someone cuts you off, the light catches you, or the toilet overflows…life’s bumps come at all of us. We yell at the driver or light that messed us up or clean up the mess and move on.

            Then we come to those dips that throw us for a loop. Your child has to go to the hospital for a broken bone or illness. You or a family member gets COVID. Your parents encounter a health issue that is going to impact your life. You were involved in a minor wreck that means your car is going to be in the shop for a week. These events bring with them changes in our routines that will over time smooth out and allow us to return to normal or even a new and slightly different normal.

            Then there comes those days when the dip drops out of sight. The phone rings and your world falls apart. You are driving along and in a split second everything changes. You are at the doctor’s office and receive news that you don’t want to hear. However the news arrives, a rollercoaster ride takes you through many ups and downs. There will be some long nights and terrible days. You find yourself longing, hoping, for some type of return to normal life, which eludes you for a long time.  

            What do we do when life hits us hard and unexpectedly? I feel bad for those who do not believe in God. They can’t run into the Father’s arms, where believers need to go when the bottom falls out in life. The trouble is that sometimes in those terrible moments we blame God for whatever trial we are facing. So we trade the comfort of our Father’s arms for the emotions that we feel justified in having and expressing.

            Another mistake we make is facing trials alone. We think we are strong and can push through a health crisis without letting anyone know. We lose our job and our finances are a mess, but we try to make it through without the love and support of family and friends. We have been at the hospital for a week sitting with a family member without telling anyone. Our child has become addicted to drugs, but no one knows.

            Your trial was never meant for you to experience alone or to be shared on social media. I believe you need to find a few friends who will support you and pray for you. Prayer is powerful and changes circumstances far greater than any of us understand. I believe it is those prayers that can sustain us and help us make it to the other side. There are also many practical things that friends and family can do to help if only they know what to do. People want to be there for you!

            I understand the problem is being open and vulnerable. Letting people see into your life can be very difficult. They discover you aren’t perfect. They learn that you have doubts, fears, and that you worry. They may see that your armor of faith has some cracks. They might see that you fell down, but they can be there to help pick you up. They can hold you and comfort you. They can encourage you and stand with you in faith believing that God is going to pull through for you. They can remind you of the goodness and the love of God.

            I want to encourage you to connect with some brothers and sisters in Christ and allow them to see behind the curtain in your life. It’s okay when they discover you are human. You have struggles and problems, good days and bad days. Let them encourage you, support you, even carry you if necessary. You know you would and have done it for them; let them do the same thing for you. Life is so much better when we allow people to love us, pray for us, and be there for us. It’s powerful when the family of God comes together to share God’s love and to pray.

Contact Doug Creamer at PO Box 777, Faith, NC 28041or doug@dougcreamer.com

My First Buechner

by   September 2, 2022 with No Comments

By Roger Barbee

  My first Frederick Buechner arrived this week;  Speak What We Feel (Not What We Ought to Say)  is his reflections on literature and faith.                                                                                                         

Now, I have always been a reader. Not a good student, it is my reading that helped me salvage my academic and intellectual self. Because of my reading I managed to attend college and even read through to obtain an MA. My modest library contains books about literature, biographies of writers and other leaders, examinations of religion, political studies, investigations of nature, and more. As a life-long learner, I subscribe to the words of Abigail Adams quoted by David McCullough in his 2008 speech at Boston College’s commencement: “Learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought with ardor and attended with diligence.” McCullough goes on to tell the graduates to “Read! Read, read…. Read for pleasure, to be sure. But take seriously-read closely-books that have stood the test of time.” Those are words I followed, taught my students, and still follow in my retirement. And I especially like Adams’ use of ardor and diligence. However, I share my reading history not out of arrogance, but so that the reader can better appreciate my feelings when a good friend recently asked me had I read Buechner. My friend, also a retired educator with whom I worked, shared with me how Buchner had influenced his teaching, faith, and life. Interested, I later typed in Frederick Buechner on the Internet search engine only to read that he had died a few days before. I read of  his peaceful death at an advanced age, but I was swept away by the tributes to and the deeply felt appreciations of such a writer/thinker that I only had not read, but one of whom I had never heard. I wondered, as I read, exactly where had I been while Frederick Buechner was being such an influencer of all kinds of folks. Feeling ignorant and a bit self-cheated, I ordered two books—the one mentioned above and my friend’s favorite, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC.

          To the present, I have only read the first two writers Buechner reflects on in Speak, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Mark Twain. His reflections of the writers at first encouraged me to rush on into this thinker’s words. Yet, reading a sentence such as the following one he writes to describe Hopkins cautions me: “Again and again Hopkins chooses words open to so many interpretations that, like prisms when the light touches them, they cast across the page a whole spectrum of possible meanings.” That is a sentence to chew, taste, and savor for what it says and how it says it. If you doubt Buechner’s insight, read The Windhover and then wonder at his depth of compassion that leads to  his deep understanding for Hopkins and Twain.

I look forward to reading and studying Buechner in the same manner that Abigail Adams advises to approach learning–with ardor and diligence.

Changing Direction

by   September 1, 2022 with No Comments

By David Freeze

 Just as the sun was starting to rise, I pedaled away from the Quality Inn  at Clarksdale. Forecasts called for a chance of thunderstorms and not quite as hot. I decided to pedal south on US 61 and then make a call or two along the way. I wanted to go to Greenville because the river might touch the town, but I wouldn’t know for sure until I talked to the visitors center there.


   On the side of a four lane busy road but out in the driving lane due to Mississippi rumble strips, I passed by exits for Duncan, Shelby, Winstonville, Mound Bayou and Merigold before hitting the busy town of Cleveland. Cleveland has about 12,000 residents, very large for this area. Afterwards, only Boyle and Shaw were towns as I pedaled into the heat and Leland. It was decision time.


  I called the visitors center in Greenville and asked the question. Did the river touch the town? Politely I was told by a friendly woman that it did not, unless you pedaled south of the city limits and went to a park. There was a lake in town, but I decided to skip Greenville and get a jump on Vicksburg. Instead of pedaling west. I stayed on US 61 as it cut down to a two lane road with no shoulder just past Leland. It was a beautiful area of crops and enhanced by a yellow crop dusting plane that I continued to see for much of an 82 mile day. At last sighting, he was just past 50 miles from his home base which was also on 61 South.


   Supported by positive winds all day, I could see storms starting to build and felt the wind changing to a strong headwind. Approaching Hollandale, massive corn harvesting was happening all around me. Huge combines and other equipment pushed until the minute rain started to fall. Suddenly it was all shut down and the corn in the bins covered.


    With rain all around, I was looking hard for Cotton Country Inn. I had called this morning and arranged for a room, just a basic room but sight unseen. Thankfully this one turned out well, with good WiFi, ice and plenty of room. The only food stores in town are Dollar General and a Stop and Shop small grocery store. Everybody in the grocery store seemed to know everybody else.


    I am not a fan of Mississippi roads and this afternoon, I discovered another reason for discontent. Only cyclists would notice but sometimes two slabs of concrete have a two inch gap between them, just enough for a bike tire to fall into it. Twice it happened this afternoon. No damage so far.


  Today wasn’t thrilling and nothing unusual happened except for the weather. As early as possible, I plan to get to Vicksburg and do the city and battlefield tours plus spend some time at the waterfront. Vicksburg was a pivotal city in the Civil War and it’s rumored to be one of the most beautiful in the Deep South.


  So with that, I will close for tonight and meet you back here tomorrow with another new city with much to explore. Thanks for riding along and for continued messages and prayers!

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