Today for the final time I read the daily meditation from the devotional, Maranatha. For a variety of reasons this daily devotional, first published in 1944, ceased publication…
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Have you considered that Jesus goes to a cross so that you may go there too? I don’t mean that only metaphorically or spiritually or any sense other than physically. Jesus went to a cross so that you could be nailed up there beside him.
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The story of Nativity is beautiful in effect for its being a story rich with both symbol and conflict, and these two must be spoken of together…
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I have a confession to make: I find it a challenge to pray. It is not something I can easily do. It is hard also to be consistent in praying daily and regularly throughout the day. Prayer cannot be formalized or systematized. For me prayer exposes my weakness and at times my raw unbelief but maybe that is not so bad. If we come to prayer with a sense of our sufficiency to pray then are we indeed praying? When we pray it seems that at the core of what should be occurring in our minds and hearts is just how needy and messy we are.
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For some time I have been fascinated by the way the Apostle Paul lays out most of his letters. In a letter like the one he wrote to the Roman believers he lays out the Gospel using the indicative mood. That means that everything he writes from 1:1 to 6:10 is descriptive. There are no imperatives or commands given until 6:11, where he urges his readers to consider themselves to be, by God’s grace in Christ, dead to the rule or dominion of sin. Yet, he really does not give more detailed directives until he comes to 12:1-2.
Therefore, I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your reasonable act of worship; and do not be conformed to this age but be transformed by the renewing of your mind for the purpose of you being able to approve what the will of God is, the good, the pleasing and the perfect.
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This time of year I am drawn again and again to the prologue of John’s Gospel. I never get tired reading through it slowly, contemplatively and prayerfully. At times I try to imagine what it must have been like for those early first and second century Christians to have heard it read in their assemblies for the first time or to have had the great gift of setting their eyes on a copy of it. What no doubt would have immediately caught their attention was the phrase “En archē ēn ho logos” (In the beginning was the Word). The Logos would have been somewhat familiar to both Jewish and Gentile believers.
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Tell me, do you have hope? I like to sift out the fools and the Christians from the rest of the populace in short order.
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I fear failure. Do you? It’s not so bad that I don’t bother trying anything at all - that’s just choosing failure. Nonetheless, I still fear it.
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Time-traveling really captures my imagination. I would really love to go back in time. Theoretically, a time-travel machine could also take me into the future, but that interests me less. Am I alone in feeling this way? It is a sentiment that has made me ponder…
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Laying in bed late one night, I began thinking of my life story. As I considered the plot of my narrative, I found there could be two tellings. And which way it went struck me as immensely important, not because I am immensely important, but because the story I tell myself about myself guides me into the future. This is true not only of me but also of you.
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If 2020 were a song. A person. An ice cream truck. A math problem. A pie. Or my favorite: If 2020 were a medical procedure (Drum roll please!)…
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“Left Behind.” That term was used in the Tim LaHaye/Jerry Jenkins books described as The Left Behind Series published in the first decade of the 21st century. The phrase refers to those who remain on earth to face God’s judgment after the “rapture” of the church which many evangelical Christians find in Paul’s first letter to the church at Thessalonica (4:13-18).
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Thirty years ago, Hurricane Hugo unexpectedly roared into Charlotte, and with it a number of things we assumed were true were turned on their ears.
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"And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her." ~ Luke 1:38
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I have not written in some time. To be honest, I have not had anything compelling enough to stir me to write… until today. I love the holiday season. I love the traditions, the time with family and friends. I love the reminder of all God has done for us in Christ. I love the decorations, the music, even the ugly sweaters out there…
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The scene of the Nativity, set among hay and humble beasts, fringed by scruffy shepherds with their meek lambs, drawn together at the center by the sweet affection shared between mother and child, fills our eyes with what would seem to be the very picture of peace. The setting seems far removed from any field of battle…
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A voice on Christ’s first advent from 115 years ago! (1904)
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I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to Me, declares the Lord, that they might be for Me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen” (Jeremiah 13:11b ESV). The last few words of that verse are convicting.
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As the plane pierced through the clouds, we got our first look at the Mediterranean. The sun glistened off the sea and islands dotted the endless blue tapestry below us. About twenty minutes after that astonishing experience, we saw the Holy Land. I had a feeling deep down in my stomach, one that I hadn’t felt for a long time. I felt at home.
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