For a couple of years now, I have been reading the Book of Enoch. Fascinating to me. As part of the Ethiopian Bible, preserved in Aramaic among the Dead Sea Scrolls, it is full of extremely interesting passages, unique descriptions expanding on the Flood texts & giants, and explanations that have connected dots for me as I read my regular Bible and would scratch my head because things were not making sense. It has enriched my Bible reading, my faith & my limited understanding……it expounds about more of the heavenly realms, assignments of angels, God’s Incredible Mercy & Love, and some of the mysteries that have had me question & yearn for more.
I highly recommend it. Portions of it have blown my mind & shown me how small some of my thinking has been. It is available online in an audio format narrated by a guy with an English accent that enhances it for me. I have always loved the English language and the beauty of words, but for me, this takes it to a whole new level with descriptive passages that easily enable me to envision them & use the wonderful imagination with which God created us.
(Links shared at the suggestion of Amy Sever through Broadcast Elements)
Viewer Discretion: Some content may be graphic & disturbing. You will be shocked, you will be stunned, you will be disbelieving…..Don’t take my word for what you will see here. Investigate for yourself & see what you find.
Links shared for sharing joy, laughter, miracles, to lift up ourselves & others & provide hope. In a world where there is a lot of negativity, bad news & fear, it’s important to me to share positivity that brings a smile to someone else or provides food for thought that gives the soul joy & the reminder that Life is full of good stuff. If you have some feel-good stories or videos, please share them with me.
All of you service members are seriously my heros! Thank you and your families for the sacrifices you all make! God bless each and every one of you! pic.twitter.com/2UFkc6FiCo
— The Disrespected Trucker (@DisrespectedThe) March 8, 2026
I’ve been under the radar a bit lately; lack of access to reliable internet, my soul was hibernating a bit, reading more, researching and studying more, pulling back in a new, different way. “Being” more instead of “doing”…..I was fully observing AK, summer 2025 and rather than write about everything, I was determined to experience it first hand without interrupting it to chronicle it; few pictures, no new blog pages, no entries. Wanted the raw & real firsthand, exhilarating sensory input. Rather than fumble for my phone for taking pictures of breaching whales and actually miss the fleeting, beautiful moment, I just stood there and took it all in. Rather than document the funny harbor seals, I just sat and stared at their antics for minutes until they disappeared & swam away. Rather than try to take a video that would not do them justice, I stood and marveled at the majestic eagles this year, I followed their flight paths & loops longer and tattooed it all in my soul for reflection. Rather than unsatisfactorily press the record button of the teeming ocean, the waves, the misty, clustering bubble feeding marvels to keep and watch later, I lingered longer, eyes glued to the graceful dance of those creatures. I leaned in to my own moments more and simply lived them, and they became more a part of me in a delightfully satisfying way. Full soul, full heart, full eye gates.
But I have missed writing and the inspired moments from life and God captured here in previous seasons. So I am back with new hope of topics, observations, thoughts and personal heart expressions I feel worth sharing.
I had never heard about Thin Places until recently reading a blog, and it immediately resonated with me spiritually. I suppose they are different for everyone but I have definitely experienced some and they are amazing places. I experience God’s sacred Presence, comfort & safety there, along with an equal amount of pleasant suspense, wonder & validation of a world beyond earth. It’s different from the daily Presence of God I have come to know deeply. The veil is very thin between this world & the next.
Kremer Kove is one of those places for me. As soon as we round the corner of the open ocean into the long arm bay, it begins. It is a gradual unfolding, a thinning of any sense of hectic or crowded or too busy; a closing in of such unique & special space & a closing out of distracting, unimportant things; a sharpening of senses that allows me to fully experience palpable Peace and Awe of my Creator in a Place. It is a set-aside location that is different from experiencing God wherever I am in my daily, which is amazing; yet this wafer-thin place is a short footstep away to being engulfed in a bubble of connection with God that is almost beyond being able to explain with my words. Nearest I can liken it to is when I watched Jim Carrey step through the artificial “sky” in the scene when he realizes his world is a movie set & all fake. It’s all that close. The one step. What I love about my Kremer Kove wafer-thin place is that it is a not fake disappointment as in the Truman Show; it is more real than the best hope of amazingness that I could conjure up in my mind & the easy and unforced, yet stronger than the strongest tensile strength connection I have with my Thin Place is for me a gift & unexpected God-Kiss for which I will always be so very grateful. It never grows old for me, it always has such a wow-God factor that He has seen fit to allow such a beautiful, heavenly place for me on earth. The experience is what I liken to a fancy dinner presentation by a white-gloved person slowly lifting an ornate dome from an exquisite tray to reveal majesty & perfection.
Historically, thin places can be marked by memorials or markings of some sort depicting holy ground or a location where something very meaningful has happened. Such as stacking of stones in the Old Testament or walls of remembrance throughout history. When I see old stone cabins, old shacks, remains of a farm & lives having been there, I’ve often been drawn to wonder what is their story, what happened there, what is the connection to the people & that which they made with their heart & hands, their thin place perhaps? The remnants of a special place still seems to resonate.
Where might your thin place be? It’s worth exploring!
In the past year I’ve learned so much about this subject that is horrendous, heart-wrenching, evil, scary, beyond prevalent, covered up, and has deep spiritual roots. I remember the milk cartons & the posters in the 80’s and the stories of missing and stolen children. More recently, the stories of selling of baby parts, human slavery, the documentaries, the Amber alerts, hearing about victims of the man with the island & their horror stories of sex trafficking, Hollywood parties & music industry people involved in crazy parties & abuse of underage kids, and the crisis at the border with unaccompanied minors that seemingly vanished ( purportedly 325,000 kiddos but probably way more). I have been uneducated, “asleep”& naive. It seemed to me over a few decades as I look back now on these topics that they were unrelated bits & pieces, reading stories, hearing the news. Yet these awful events had not yet gelled in my mind as all part of the hellish & diabolical plan to torture, harvest & sacrifice babies & children, our most innocent & precious human beings in addition to abuse & sexual assault of girls, boys & women. It is a bit overwhelming to learn about & realize the truths behind it though …… the blood lust, the disregard for human life…… It is sobering and leaves me speechless & sick to my stomach. I am so grateful to brave women & men, our military, and organizations committed to rescuing these precious ones. My heart & mind are still being opened to this large subject & the global scope of the wicked facts about it. But as I’m still learning I felt I had to acknowledge it here. It is coming to a head. People are being revealed of their part in it. Hollywood, the rich & powerful, the global elites, people in our government & world leaders are being exposed. Lord, protect the suffering children & have mercy on us as a nation & world.
Psalms 139:17-18 Amplified Bible (AMP)…..”How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I could count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.”
What??? It seems unfathomable to me to calculate the grains of sand and apply it here, but there is a group of people that did an experiment. Jochem Hendricks, along with twelve assistants, spent one thousand hours counting 3,281,579 grains in one cup of sand! In just one cup!!!!
Does this blow your mind like it does mine?? How much God cares about us……grains of sand…God cares so much for us, for me…Let’s pause and hover here a minute and let that sink in & settle.
I know the Plans I have for you, thoughts I have for you (Jeremiah 29:11).
I have recently replaced table salt with Celtic Salt because of the amazing amount of minerals found therein; at first I switched to Himalayan but have since switched again because the Celtic has more Magnesium than the Himalayan and is therefore better for me; but how often are we told by dr’s that if we have high BP we need to stop the salt?!!! Bad advice in my opinion, very unscientific actually; I am learning we are not only being misinformed about the food pyramid, but also about salt & heart health & BP; and therefore, the medicines being offloaded on so many of us;(check out a basic A&P book about the 4 vital elements needed for life); we desperately need the minerals found in the “good salt”…..92 or so minerals that have been bleached out of table salt. Our bodies were created to need it the way it’s found in Nature.
Fun fact: During the war in the Navy they used to transfuse with sea water because it’s very quickly changed to blood!
The term “Covenant Salt,” is indicative of the everlasting nature of the Covenant relationship between the children of God and their Creator. Entering into a Covenant of Salt means binding oneself to another in utmost loyalty and truthfulness. Also, permanence, loyalty, durability, usefulness, purification, and value….. As salt was regarded as a necessary ingredient of the daily food, and so of all sacrifices offered to God (Lev 2:13), it became an easy step to the very close connection between salt and covenant-making. When people ate together they became friends…. the Arabic expressions, “There is salt between us”; “He has eaten of my salt,” which means partaking of hospitality which cemented friendship; “eat the salt of the palace” (Ezra 4:14). Covenants were generally confirmed by sacrificial meals and salt was always present. Since, too, salt is a preservative, it would easily become symbolic of an enduring covenant. So offerings to God were to be by a statute forever, “a covenant of salt for ever before the Lord” (Num 18:19). David received his kingdom forever from the Lord by a “covenant of salt” (2 Chron 13:5). In the light of these conceptions the remark of Our Lord becomes the more significant: “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another (Mark 9:49-50)”
“Salt of the earth” people…….very good, honest, and reasonable, and not thinking you are special in any way; very friendly and straightforward. That’s how I want to be.
We as Christ Followers are called Salt. Both too much and not enough are bad. Shake us out, Lord.
I’m not sure why so deeply I relish the fact that there seems to be a swear word in the Bible. I only heard this taught and the word used in church about 8 yrs ago. The polite side of my Christianity would probably not have entertained or appreciated this word from the Bible 10-20 years ago or as a new Christ follower in the 70’s; my theology was rather small-minded, and altho sincere and eager, I did not have the perspective I have now, after many decades of living life, embracing sucky situations in my life, and realizing this is a big category ……skubalon ……that has lots of subsections; (I am certain as you read this that you could add many of your own items to the list I have touched upon)……..having other people’s stuff land on me & bring pain & sorrow that I did not ask for, enduring the rain that falls on all of us in this life, injustice, being misunderstood, decades in organized religion and expected, falsely-respectful behavior toward some leadership no matter what (that is unwarranted and misplaced at times), loss, heart break, disappointment, accidents, health crises, and hard times, along with some really, really tough seasons of life that might more healthily be processed if we were willing to bring the hard topics to the table and be supported to talk about it, put it out in the open, and not shy away from it. I am thankful I have gained some perspective and wisdom. I have so much more to learn. Let’s be honest, a lot of times life is like hugging a cactus!!….I love how the Bible includes what I consider a cuss word……”refuse, dung, skubalon, @#$%”……. unmentionable in some churches and/or with some people, but not in the Bible. God is raw, real, and honest. I wish more of the church would bravely embrace this concept. Let’s stop sugar-coating the hard stuff, let’s meet it more head on, shall we?? I believe we would find more strength, more relateability, more commonality with other humans, and dare I say healing to our bodies & minds if we were willing to be a titch more approachable when someone gets vulnerable with us (or we get more vulnerable with another trusted & approachable human) and realizes they are not alone, along with us living more raw & real in life so that people see we all struggle with similar things, and can draw strength from each other as we “do life” together.
It’s okay to not be okay all the time. It’s okay to not be “fine” all the time & to be honest enough to admit it. Life can be very hard at times & there will be skubalon in our day to day sometimes but let’s do ourselves and others a favor & be a bit more raw & real about that instead of being fake and proclaiming how fine we are because we think we’re less than or don’t have enough faith or that we’ve done something wrong to have the negatives in our life.
[In Philippians 3:8, Paul uses the word σκύβαλον (skubalon), which is usually translated as “dung” , “garbage”, “!@#$”, or “rubbish”. Thanks, Paul for being raw & real in your writings!! ]
