“Ugh…Monday” I can’t count the number of times I’ve read the resurrection passages in the gospels. I marvel at angels, the empty tomb, dense disciples, and I imagine myself on the scene. All these years, until last week, I have missed the introductory phrase in all four gospel accounts. The phrase is either, “…after the…
Picture yourself gathered for worship in your church. The announcements are finished, and the worship team is in full voice. Just as the congregation enters into a quiet refrain on one of your favorite worship songs, you are startled by a terrible sound and the building begins to shake. Your quick consideration of a second…
Happy first day of spring! I love the way the weeks of Lent in the northern hemisphere often mean Crocus blooms push their way through the soil, trees turn purple with pregnant buds, and the birds return bringing with them the songs of the season. The cold earth and brittle stalks become flush with new…
Luke records a Sabbath day when Jesus was invited to the home of a prominent Pharisee for a meal. A first-century meal like this would have resembled an ancient game of Musical Chairs. Guests tried to guess their place at the table based on their importance and who else had been invited. Naturally, Jesus took…
Jill and I host a small group in our home. We share in great fellowship, a meal together, and then a little devotional time called S.O.A.P. This is a practice we learned in Wayne Cordeiro’s excellent book, “The Divine Mentor.” Essentially, we read a scripture together (S), offer our observations (O), discuss the practical application of the…
Practicing Lent In Matthew 6:1-18, Jesus is right in the middle of The Sermon on the Mount. His sermon begins with The Beatitudes, which turn conventional wisdom upside down, and goes on from there, inviting us to upend everything we’d always considered normal in favor of his in-breaking Kingdom and its priorities. In Jesus’ kingdom,…
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 3:13-14 Have you…
“The Voice” Luke 3 records the story of Jesus’ Baptism like this:‘When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he waspraying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am…
Things in the Garden started so beautifully–the unspoiled beauty of creation; living face to face with the Creator. But what began in such primeval perfection was ruined by carnal rebellion. From that moment, all creation groaned under the weight of separation from God. What, or better Who, could mend this gaping rift?You and I know…
Pastor, are you a thermostat or a thermometer? Get the idea? No?Here is the question: do you set the “temperature” or try to read the “temperature?” In Luke 4, Jesus has just returned from the wilderness temptation. He entered a first-century Judaism that had grown stale. Though God broke the silence of the intertestamental period…
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