Remembering my Poet, Preacher Papa

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Karen Thomas Olsen

Today is the twentieth anniversary of my father’s home-going. I miss that dear boy.

In years past I’ve written a number of posts about him. If you look down the menu column on the left, you will find below the list of categories a list of tagged themes. My father’s name is in this list: Marion R. Thomas and Rev. Marion R. Thomas. If you click on either of these, you will find posts about him and his family, including photos and some of his poems, which I believe will bless you.

I’ve provided two links below to two of my articles about Dad. “Getting Home Before Dark” is the first link, which shows Dad’s sweet view of life as he looks back over 70 years, and then in the last line his mind turns to anticipate the future. This post also introduces Dad’s poem, “Suppose”, which presents a contemplative view of the meaning of life. You’ll find the entire poem in the second post. I offer you these two posts from ten years ago, which take us further back to my father’s time. They are encouraging testaments for us today. Click on the titles below and enjoy.

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Categories: A Personal Note, Grandparenting, Parenting | 4 Comments

What Do I Do With the Bible? Six Steps

Posted on June 30, 2024 by Karen Thomas Olsen

I haven’t blogged much this spring because I’ve focused on completing my book that is to be published this year. I’ve recently submitted my second, entire draft. My publisher and I will be discussing it in a week. Thank you to all of you who are praying for this book and the ministry it can have to help many people. My book, A Traveler’s Guide through Suffering and Joy, develops a theology, an organized way of viewing, interpreting, and coming to terms with suffering and joy.

You can take any topic and develop a theology using the topic as the focal point. Theology is the study of God in relation to any topic. Nothing exists outside of a theological perspective. We need to ask:

“How biblically tethered is any given theology?” “How biblically tethered am I?”

First, we need to know what to do with the Bible.  Some Christians feel ambivalent about God’s Word. Many Christians and nonChristians hold prejudices against it or assume untruths about it. Why? It is a book that is talked about but not read much.

You can get away with that with The Republic, by Plato: just read some online summaries.  This approach will not work with the Word of God. So, I was thinking about a five or six step approach to God’s Word that is so straight forward. I learned several versions of this from Dr. Howard Hendricks, but I’ll give you my simple starter version.

Use your right hand for counting, and start with your thumb and go to each finger and finally the palm of your hand. What do I do with the Bible?

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Categories: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

The Recursive Nature of Writing and Life

Posted on April 30, 2024 by Karen Thomas Olsen

I remember teaching certain principles of writing to my community college students in essay writing classes thirty years ago. Here are three of them:

  1. Writing is a recursive process.
  2. Good writing requires re-writing.
  3. Stop and submit.                                                                                                                                                                             Of course, a number of  points belong between the first and third above. As obvious as these three principles are, they can be difficult and frustrating to follow. With my book I’m currently finalizing for publication yet this year, I’m having trouble getting to the third because I’m in the muck with numbers one and two!

Life is like the recursive nature of writing. (Maybe it’s like all three principles.) Let me explain the three points, my experience, and my current situation.

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Categories: A Personal Note, A Traveler's Guide thr Suffering & Joy | Tags: | 1 Comment

A Peek into my Coming Book!

Posted on March 8, 2024 by Karen Thomas Olsen

My dear readers, I want to invite you to peek into my book, A Traveler’s Guide through Suffering and Joy, which is being published later this year. The entire book which is a Bible study and all the appendices are complete as a first submission draft. I’ve revised them multiple times.  I’d like to share with you one page.

“What page?”

My latest version of my table of contents.

“Table of contents!” you say. “What’s so exciting about a T of C?”

I’ll try not to be offended. I find tables of content to be highly interesting. They are one of the key ways of exploring a book to get acquainted with it before reading it.

I drafted my T of C several years ago. It has been settled.  Until this morning. I realized there was something I could do to make this do more than show the logical organization and flow of ideas. It did that job, but it was not interesting.

“What did you do to draw in the reader?” you ask.  Good question. Let me show you.

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Categories: A Personal Note, A Traveler's Guide thr Suffering & Joy | Tags: | 5 Comments

Secrets and Sightings

Posted on February 24, 2024 by Karen Thomas Olsen

“I look at Jesus, not the Old Testament or New Testament,” explained a pastor to a church member who was seeking to understand the church’s teaching about spiritual transformation and the relationship between human beings and God.

A friend recently reported this conversation to me that he had with one of his pastors. It might be helpful to know more of the situation, but this statement is enough to raise questions. My friend is observing not only what is being taught in his church but what is not being taught. We all need to be alert and observant in our own situations.

My mind goes back thirty years to meeting a pastor of a growing church that was to become a mega church in that particular area. He loved Jesus. He preached Jesus. But he held a disdain for the Old Testament. He wanted to distance himself and his church from the violence recorded there and the angry God he saw there.

What impact would such a narrow understanding of Jesus and distorted view of the Scriptures have on people? I can’t address this question in this post, but it is worth pondering. What I will address in this post is the next question.

Can Jesus be truly understood through the four Gospels of the New Testament alone? Continue reading →

Categories: Christian Reader, Devotional, Spiritual Growth, Study methods & disciplines | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments

Epiphany: Such Glorious Radiance and Representation

Posted on January 6, 2024 by Karen Thomas Olsen

“What an epiphany!” I exclaim when something strikes me as a profound realization. I see it! I’m enlightened. This is how we tend to use the word, epiphany. Yet, note its beautiful and ancient usage as the name for the twelfth day of Christmas. Epiphany: every January 6, the celebration the coming of the Magi to see the Christ child. Epiphany: the incarnation and manifestation of Christ to the world. Christ, the Light of the world. A-ha!

Therefore, today is an appropriate day to bring to light an essay I wrote last year that has been hidden in my Word documents, unused.

This essay presents some themes, quotations, and insights developed in my unpublished Bible study, which I am re-writing as a book to be published later this year. (If you’ve been with me for years, you’ll recognize certain themes.) I’ll be writing more in coming posts about my new adventure, working with a publisher.

For now, I’ll bring to light some thoughts I’ve pondered about our glorious Savior and the radiance of His Epiphany.

Such Glorious Radiance and Representation

When we look at Jesus, we see no strong points. None. What?

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Categories: Being Like Jesus, Joy & Suffering -- Good & Evil, Spiritual Growth | Tags: , , , | 5 Comments

“Near Drowning of the Bells”: A Christmas Reading

Posted on December 16, 2023 by Karen Thomas Olsen

My dear readers,

I wrote the following script as an Oral Interpretation (interpretive reading) ten years ago for a “Candlelight Carols” event in our home in Arizona. Recently, I found it in my Christmas music, edited it a bit, and then re-wrote the ending, giving it a different turn.

If you can use the script in any way, a home advent reading or with a group, feel free to use it. It is very fitting this year to give attention to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem/carol, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” written on Christmas day in 1863. And to provide fascinating balance, I’ve brought in Phillips Brooks’ “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” written in 1867. What may we gain from their perspectives on heartache, war, providence, and the wondrous gift so quietly given to a noisy world?

Paul and I are going to be presenting this revised version this Sunday evening to our Home Group (five couples from our church that meet twice a month). We are calling our evening “Candlelight Carols and Cafe.” We will sing together, eat a fellowship meal together, and sing some more, scattering a few short readings in here and there, with this reading culminating toward the end.

So, how did Longfellow resist the encroaching despair when heartache upon tragedy invaded his world? Does the loudest noise need to be the most influential voice in your life? Listen to this reading:

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Categories: Devotional | Tags: , , | 5 Comments

A Holiday Homily: “For Unto Us”

Posted on December 8, 2023 by Karen Thomas Olsen

Our church hosted a Ladies’ Christmas Tea on December 3, and I was involved in the planning and preparation. Then I was asked to give the devotional or lesson. I chose to call it a “tea talk” or a “holiday homily”. It could be used as an Advent lesson. I’ve decided to share my tea talk with you, my JNC readers.*

[My opening remark: My mind has been percolating like a boiling tea kettle on and off for weeks now on our theme, “For Unto Us,” so I scripted my thoughts to control their flow.]

For Unto Us

“For Unto Us.” Such a little phrase – “For unto us.”  But what does it mean? Continue reading →

Categories: Devotional | Tags: , , | 4 Comments

News and Invitation: “To Thee, O Lord, I call…”

Posted on November 12, 2023 by Karen Thomas Olsen

This post will be shorter and more personal. I would like to invite you into my current experience and planning.

In my last post I mentioned my unpublished Bible study entitled A Traveler’s Guide through Suffering and Joy. Since then, after several years of exploring publishing options, I have finally committed to working with a particular publisher, so the book should be  available sometime next year.

I set up a new writing station in the window nook facing the back yard. Note that the fabric on the table matches my book’s travel theme.

Over the next three months, I plan to rework the study, deleting the “workbook” part, and creating a solid, nonfiction work, closer to a textbook, but hopefully appealing enough so that it doesn’t read like a textbook. I think I’ll end each chapter with a page of study prompt questions, so I could still label this a Bible study book. I’m not sure yet.

Years ago, I presented some of my research or book material on this blog. It has been so long ago. I wonder if any of you remember. Life has gotten harder for most people since I first started my research ten years ago on this theme of suffering and joy — as viewed through the lenses of Scripture.

A Traveler’s Guide through Suffering and Joy. Subtitle? I’ve written pages of ideas for sub-titles.

I have many decisions to make, so I’d like to ask you three questions.

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Categories: A Personal Note, Joy & Suffering -- Good & Evil | 4 Comments

From Longing to Longing: Richard and the Crude Russian Officer

Posted on October 9, 2023 by Karen Thomas Olsen

Today, I’m going to tell a fascinating story which will take us back to the series my last post interrupted .

The series I interrupted was about atheism, secularism, religion, and education, in response to some questions from a reader. Rather heavy, I suppose. So, in my previous post I lightened the reading up by telling  you a heartwarming story from my own experience recently in which I spent three days with two friends from high school, our memories reaching back many decades.  I hope you enjoyed the account and photos.

Today’s true story reaches back to World War II (yes, before my time!). I referred to this incident in my post on September 14. I have included this story in chapter 11 of my unpublished Bible study, A Traveler’s Guide through Suffering and Joy. This is the story of  “Richard and The Crude Russian Officer”.

Last week I took this photo a few blocks from our home. The trees are changing color earlier this year.  I wonder, “What time of year did the Russian officer meet Richard?” I don’t know, but the meeting brought more color into the lives of each man, and mine too, just by reading the story.

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Categories: Dr. A.A. Hodge, Education, Government, Joy & Suffering -- Good & Evil, Perspectives on Culture | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

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