 After clicking 'Play', please wait a few moments for the podcast to load. You can also listen on Spotify, Apple, Google, Podomatic, Player FM and Deezer. Listen to other Forecasts here. Jon Seligman speaks with Josh about how teaching primary/elementary music, at its best, brings 'cosmos out of chaos', to quote author Madeleine L'Engle. Jon finds purpose and hope in helping students to find their voices and become self-confident through music. Jon's Christian faith and work are inseparable. He also explains how other areas of his life, such as volunteer worship leading and taking photographs as a hobby, can similarly bring cosmos out of chaos. Jon Seligman is a primary music teacher in Chula Vista, California. You can listen to his podcast on music education advocacy here. Josh Seligman is a co-host of Forecast. Other Forecasts with Jon:
- Blessed Are Those Who Mourn (Ep 2, March 2021) - Singing Tomorrow's Song (Ep 13, August 2021)
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By Stephen D. Edwards Peter weeps as the rooster crows a second time, and the morning chill overtakes him with a fire reduced to embers. The high priest leaves the courtyard of his home after delivering his command to take Jesus to Pontius Pilate, saying that He claimed to be the Son of God. This must be the end of my days as a fisher of men, Peter thinks, because the Master is now a convict, and I’ve denied Him, as He said I would. Peter leaves the courtyard heading to the upper room, as he considers last night’s events. Jesus washed everyone’s feet, which is so odd, because we should have washed His. Yet, now I can see how I should be last in order to be great in God’s kingdom. New leaves on the fig tree just outside the gate remind Peter that the Master had said, “If you have faith with no doubt, you will not only wither the fig tree, but tell that mountain to fall into the sea, and it will happen.” With renewed faith, Peter prays, God, show me the ways that I may serve others in acts of washing feet for Your sake. Help me in my decisions from this day forward, and help my faith to never falter again. * * * Walking along the street toward the Sheep Gate, as the skies begin to darken from the hidden sun, Jesus falls three times while carrying the cross, unable to carry it further. A centurion orders Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross ahead of Jesus. Simon remembers that Jesus had said that if someone demands that he go a mile, he should go two. Pleased to obey Jesus, he lifts the cross to his shoulder, holding it securely with his arm, and he walks, willing to go any distance. Peter sees Jesus nearing the top of Golgotha, tattered with blood oozing from His many wounds, which reminds Peter of the Scripture he learned as a child: “By His wounds we are healed.” As Jesus cries out from the pain of the spikes ramming through his wrists and feet, John remembers a line from the psalmist: “They have pierced My hands and feet.” The sight of that violence turns John away. He comforts himself with the memory that tomorrow is the Sabbath of the Passover, which celebrates the covering of the lamb’s blood on the lintels and doorposts, which protected the Israelites as the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt. This reminds John of Jesus’ teaching about the grape vine, its branches, and its vinedresser. I know He wanted me to bear fruit as His branch, but He also said to live in Him and that He would live in me. How can I, now that the Vine has been cut down? Turning back to the cross, he continues: Jesus, how will You be glorified in this? Yet even so, I will honor our time together by striving to bear fruit. When he turns away again, he sees Jesus’ mother Mary standing close by, streams of tears flooding her cheeks and chin. He walks to her to embrace her, as he hopes to comfort her in her weeping, remembering Jesus’ example of service to others. She remains silent as her arms surround him. With the scribes and Pharisees mocking Jesus on the cross and the soldiers casting lots for his clothes, Jesus says, “Forgive them, Father. They don’t know the things they do.” * * * Storm clouds fill the daylight sky with rain threatening to soak the streets; the air becomes heavy. In the upper room, the walls slightly crack after an earthquake. The disciples’ eyelids droop as though weighted with lead; they fall asleep as they did when Jesus prayed the night before. Mary Magdalene enters the sleepy room announcing that she needs help burying Jesus. Peter wakes up trying to shake off his sorrow and says, “I’ll go with you.” * * * None of the disciples leave the upper room until after the Sabbath, not even to buy food or go to the Temple. At dawn on the Third Day, Mary Magdalene and the other women return to the tomb to apply the spices to the body of Jesus. They become distressed because they find that Jesus is not there, even though the tomb had been well-sealed two days before. Mary returns to the upper room out of breath, saying, “Our Rabboni has been taken away. We don’t know where they have put Him.” Peter and John look at each other, stunned. Peter puts his shoes and garment on. John follows Peter out the door, as Mary moves out of their way with a gasp. Their walk to the tomb turns into a run and a race that John wins, but he stands outside of the tomb in wonder, looking in from the outside. Peter arrives and doesn’t stop until he is inside the tomb, where he finds the burial cloths cast aside on Jesus’ ledge, but his eyes widen when he sees the face cloth folded, and he allows himself a titter of surprise. John finally follows Peter into the tomb to see the cloth and asks, “Did you fold the cloth?” “No, John! Jesus did, and you know that means He isn’t done with us yet! He truly has made me a fisher of men!” John looks at the sunlight entering the tomb, saying, “It is confirmed by death’s defeat: eternal life belongs to all who believe in Christ. Because He lives, we too will live.” Stephen D. Edwards is a regular contributor to AllAboutChrist.net and the author of The Branch and the Vine, a memoir of long-term depression and hope. He also writes novels and short stories with Christian themes. Edwards’ most recent work has been published in Agape Review, Faith on Every Corner, Calla Press and OpenDoor Poetry.
By Josh Seligman Hymn tune: BUNESSAN ('Morning has broken') Jesus is risen! I will go with him Into the morning of the new day Sorrow to swallow, New paths to follow As the world opens in his new way. Jesus is risen! All the world, listen: Done are the days when death ruled as king Can you believe it? Will you receive him? Jesus the Lord fulfills everything. Jesus is risen! Let us rise with him To live the story death tried to close Praise with your laughter Praise with your whole life Praise like the first light when he arose! Josh Seligman is the editor of Foreshadow.
By Alexandra O'Sullivan “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” – Rom 12:1 Blood was first spilled to cover their nakedness – Adam & Eve, our parents – an animal, innocent, slain to dress in mercy their shame and guilt. A shadow and a typeform of the temple where lambs bleating had their throats slit to wash our guilt for yet another day. An imperfect system never perfecting. Living sacrifices being lifted onto altars burning while men’s hearts grew cold and weary searching for liberation. Then finally it came, or rather, He – the One who put His glory down, like a king would his scepter, and joined the huddled mess of humanity in our dust, sin, and struggle. He had no form or majesty or beauty that we should look to Him, a root miraculously growing out of dry ground, yet from Him a flood of Life came quenching. His knees calloused, His hands healing, His life lifted up and given, a perfect sacrifice bleeding crimson, permeating, the dust, the sin, the struggle of humanity’s hardened, hopeless heart. The Savior, Son, and image of what we must become as temples of His Holy Spirit, our bodies, our wills, our hearts the altar where the Sacred Flame does its holy work. In the burning and the wrestle, our ways conform to His, as our hips are touched and ever-humbled (ever-hobbled), as we learn to lean on Him. Our imperfect lives, a living sacrifice, our reasonable worship accepted, forever being perfected and pleasing to the One who came & covered us. Alexandra O'Sullivan is a wife, mother and amateur poet from Texas. She has been published in Ekstasis Magazine.
 After clicking 'Play', please wait a few moments for the podcast to load. You can also listen on Spotify, Apple, Google, Podomatic, Player FM and Deezer. Listen to other Forecasts here. Ryan Weiss speaks with Will about how he prioritises his responsibilities and callings, whether as a professor, a parent, a husband, a musician, a worship leader or a researcher. Each of his roles gives him the opportunity to connect with and nurture others. Looking back on his life, he observes how openings have forced him to ask who he really is and what he really wants to do, forming a path that has become his identity. He also describes how his faith in God and his work in science complement each other. This episode features music by Ryan's former band Tularosa. Below are highlights from today's Forecast. They have been lightly edited for clarity and concision. Different expressions The big scientists that I look up to have these other sides to them, whether they're artists or musicians or anything. I think it actually does play a yin/yang kind of thing. You're using both parts of your brain. Creativity is a huge part of science....I've always wanted to play music, but it's been in different expressions. Worship is a way to be involved in a church and really plug in and form relationships with people that I really care about and be encouraged by people in those environments and also connect to God.... Different responsibilities come and go and float to the top, and you have to take hold of that. I'm not perfect, but I'm trying to figure that out. Being a dad and a husband is the most important thing out of everything...How do you prioritise or balance it all but also still feel fulfilled and still feel like you're doing what you're called to do? Wearing different hats In terms of being fulfilled, I'm very lucky that i have a lot of things that do that every single day. A small example is coming home from work and hearing my daughter being like, 'Daddy!', and she comes down. She's only two years old, so I've only had two years of my life that I've had that. Talk about fulfilling, that's awesome just to be able to feel her happiness and see the whole family together. That's a small thing that happens daily that's very life-breathing. That's one hat that I love to wear, a new hat that I'm wearing. Also being a husband and figuring out how to be a parent with my wife....Stepping into these collaborations. That's at home, and then at work, I have a laboratory where we collaborate with a private foundation to discover a cure for this rare genetic disease....There's about one in 50,000 kids who are born with it, and they get these bone tumours that are really painful....So our passion in the lab is to try to identify a novel drug to help them. So that's something I'm really passionate about. That's a daily drive, but something that really compels me in science is not only discovering things, but can we find things that can actually help people tangibly? Called to enable others I've always enjoyed teaching a lot, and I get a lot of opportunities to do that throughout my career. As I started doing it, I realised that I really loved it and felt like I was called to do it, to enable people to find their calling or making something feel attainable to people. Even If I don't feel called to be a medical doctor, how do I enable people or encourage people to reach out to those things that they never imagined?....Just being able to impart that on younger people has always felt like something I enjoy doing....Even if I'm not the best or most successful scientist who discovers something that changes the world -- obviously that's a passion as well -- but how I approach it now is, can enable the trainees in my lab to go on to do great things? Opportunities A lot of things that happen in life, at least in my life -- it's like these little doors crack open, and they're like, 'Hey, here's this opportunity'. So maybe the inquisitiveness comes into that too. Looking back, these different decisions that I've made throughout life have presented themselves without even thinking that they would present themselves to me, but stepping into that with faith or with inquisitiveness has been a major blessing. It's pushed me to new places that I had never thought possible. Somehow, now I'm a professor when I was thinking about dropping out of grad school eight years ago with the band stuff. But then things happened in life at that time that really pulled the rug out, and I said, 'What do you really want to do?' and 'Who really are you?'....All you can do is make some decision and just do your best with that. Dr. Ryan Weiss is a professor in the biochemistry and molecular biology department of the University of Georgia. He is also a musician, a dad and a husband. You can learn more about his lab here.
Will Shine is a co-host of Forecast. By Phyllis Green  I've been a writer most of my life, but five years ago, I began to tell stories with paint and canvas. This is an early painting. I remembered back in Sunday School when I was a child, there were pictures of Jesus on the cross with several women praying near him. So I simply painted my memory. Phyllis Green is an author, playwright, and artist. Her paintings can be found at ArLiJo 123, Earth and Altar, Gulf Stream Magazine, Novus, New Plains Review, CERASUS, and soon in CALYX, Aji, Club Plum, Third Wednesday, I 70 Review, and Cinematic Codes Review.
By Emma McCoy I walk through the desert with no complete question. This warm and shapeless town has yet to remember the things it will forget. It would much rather bury him and treat the betrayal like the darkest feat of sin. But the air is full of regret tonight, the kind that comes with a sunset. If God loved Judas like He’s loving me, why did he die at the end of a noose, choking and swinging from an olive tree? Judas saw the Messiah come from God and wanted to see the Roman world lose. When the sun sets we sit, Judas and me, missing the point, under an olive tree. Emma McCoy is a literature student at Point Loma Nazarene University, California. Much of her poetry explores biblical narratives through re-imagination, closed forms and a close look at the structures and imagery of the original stories. When she's not writing, she spends her time outdoors chasing the downhill -- either skiing or mountain-biking. Emma's other poems on Foreshadow: - a voice in the darkness (October 2021) - the third movement of Genesis (January 2021) - To Cross the Jordan (June 2021) Related work on Foreshadow: - At Judas' funeral (Poetry by Carl Winderl) From the Editor: This poem about missing the point describes how Judas misunderstands Jesus' calling, which is to save the world -- not through force, but through sacrificial love.
By Alina Sayre After clicking 'Play', please wait a few moments for the reading to load. Seams tatter while my body ages, greys. No night or morning. Empty months ooze by. My soul sleeps, adrift through shoreless days. Babies swell, are born outside of public gaze, eat yams, grow teeth, learn to laugh and cry. Seams tatter while my body ages, greys. Suspended animation is this phase. Time, a lifeless board-pinned butterfly. My soul sleeps, adrift through shoreless days. Push poisoned hugs and smiles six feet away. Blue surgical paper swallows all but eyes. Seams tatter while my body ages, greys. Frozen in our separate amber day by day, for love we sacrifice—at least we try. My soul sleeps, adrift through shoreless days. Sun warms my sealed eyelids with its rays. I dream of waking under cloudless skies. Seams tatter while my body ages, greys. My soul sleeps, adrift through shoreless days. Alina Sayre is the award-winning author of five books and a graduate student of theopoetics at Bethany Theological Seminary. You can learn more about her work here. You can also hear more about 'Sleepwalker' here. Alina's other work on Foreshadow: Related work on Foreshadow:
By Bill Ayres Put in charge of so much money I should have been happy. I should have taken a chance. But I didn’t buy flour and make bread There were already too many bakeries. To buy wool and use it to make tents, I would have had to learn to sew. Others bought and sold. They started banks. They opened stores. The smell of clay filled my nostrils as I dug the hole, making a place to hide the treasure, digging it deeper than it had to be, not knowing why, not realizing what I buried was myself. Bill Ayres teaches Sunday school to five year olds. They ask good questions. Related work on Foreshadow:
Vocation as a Gift (Interview, 2022) |
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