Author Archives: joyocala

We love because he first loved us.  1 John 4:19. God’s love for us certainly isn’t a response to our actions because if that were true, He would have plenty of reasons not to love us. We are not always … Continue reading →

Have you ever experienced a poke from God, while engaging in less than wise behavior? Oh, I don’t mean bad or sinful behavior. I get those all the time. I mean things like questionable eating decisions or watching movies into … Continue reading →

It is said if you really want to learn something you should teach it. That’s how I learned about Boniface (675?-754), an Anglo-Saxon missionary to what is now approximately the areas of the Netherlands and western Germany. The lesson about … Continue reading →

I was with my father at the National Gallery when he got to see one of his favorite paintings, “The Sacrament of the Last Supper” by Salvador Dali. It’s a striking work. At first you know what your are looking … Continue reading →

Two of my friends/neighbors I grew up with became enamored with kilns, due mostly to the fact that the mother of one of them had a ceramic business. When we became adults and went our separate ways, these two went … Continue reading →

Joy Cowley is a New Zealand based writer, known especially for her children’s books.   I came upon a morning prayer in her collection called Aotearoa Psalms.  Yes, I looked it up.  The word Aotearoa is the Māori word for New … Continue reading →

My sense of humor invades my thinking many times a day. As I was walking the other day, I laughed right out loud. A squirrel, busy nibbling on a found treasure of food, scurried out of my path and leaped … Continue reading →

I was recently gifted a book entitled Love Does by Bob Goff who is the founder of Restore International, a non-profit fighting the injustices committed against children in Uganda and India. He is a lawyer and also serves as the … Continue reading →

Tomorrow will be a very beautiful day. Tomorrow is the day that my granddaughter Mollie begins a new phase of living as married woman. We are excited; her parents are excited; her sister is excited; Nana Pat is excited; Mollie … Continue reading →

I don’t fault you if you never heard of Juri Transovsky (1592-1637). He was a Lutheran pastor and hymnwriter from Cieszyn, Silesia (now Poland, then Bohemia). His early life as a pastor was troubled by the persecution of Lutherans by … Continue reading →