Lisa J. Camp

We've settled snuggly into fall here in my hometown.  Fiery-colored trees have dropped their leaves like a silky garment in a pool around their feet as if starring in their own perfume commercial.  That was last week.  This week for the first time this season, the world has donned a more modest blanket of white. Snow fell as we slept and the world was beautifully clean and cozy as we rose from our slumbers.  It's always a welcome sight to me... even at the beginning of a week when I decided to drink less coffee.  (I'm thankful "less" is relatively vague enough to still indulge on a cold day that won't make it above the freezing mark.) I woke earlier than I wanted to, left earlier than usual, and made my way to work across town.  I usually enjoy the snowy drive as it fills my head with my Dad's voice... "leave good distance between you and the car in front of you, no cruise control, ease off the gas on the overpasses and bridges, look for cars that c

Read Genesis 1:1 through 6:8  known as Parashat Bereshit.  I'm learning in questions of my faith and expressions of it, the disparate difference a law and a principle.  The law of Moses was established on Sinai and was meant to lead us to salvation.  After all, how would you know your need of God's grace and mercy if you never knew how you'd violated His expectations.  A principle is different, however.  It's a truth that was established apart from the law and it has natural benefits or fallout depending on whether or not it is applied.  For example, the tithe (or the practice if returning to God ten percent of your income) is not a law.  It was a principle established in the first few chapters of Genesis - Abel gave to God what came first, while Cain gave over the course of time.  And regardless of what believers in the second want to believe about that, it's still a principle that when you give God what's first, He can do more with what remains that you coul