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I love the emphasis of The Big Serve coming up April 19-21. I have heard so many exciting plans describing how our SCO congregations are preparing to love their neighbors in Jesus’ name. We are attempting to collect some of those plans now. Pastor, if you haven’t done so yet, Please place your information in the form by clicking here: This will help us as we send this story on to news outlets and our own Holiness Today. Don’t forget to snap some photos of your group serving as well and upload them to the link we have provided in this email recently. This is the…

As the season of Eastertide continues, my devotional readings have focused on resurrection events. Mark 16:2-3 intrigues me. “Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” Their impulse was to honor Jesus’ body in the manner they had been taught. To have permitted the body of one you loved, more importantly, one you believed to be God’s Son, to be treated inappropriately would have been unforgivable. So, they gathered the necessary resources…

“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 sabbath…” (Matthew and Mark) or “…on the first day of the week…” (Luke and John). Both phrases mean essentially the same thing. I bet you’ve hustled past those words as well. We know the timeline, let’s get to the good stuff! Not so fast. That…

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 Pentecost is replaced by the blare of emergency sirens and the chaotic scrambling of your fellow parishioners. Before long, one of the people that always hangs out in the foyer during worship (every church seems to have them) comes bursting through the doors announcing, “Something…

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 life. I can’t help but think of resurrection, of new life, in the springtime! What are you doing with your new life? “What new life?” you might ask. The new life that you received when you were forgiven by Jesus and pointed in a 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 the lowest seatavailable and observed this embarrassing shuffle. When the meal was ready to begin, a man with abnormal swelling was seated right in front of Jesus. This man would have been visibly ill and since it was the Sabbath, it was clear that the…

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 passage to our lives (A), and then share requests and pray together (P). It’s a simple practice and I commend it to you if you’re looking for a way to move your fellowship time to things spiritual. This week we read Mark 2:1-12. It was…

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, murder isn’t only wrong, but so are the hateful thoughts that precede it.  Likewise, adultery isn’t just immoral, but so are the thoughts which lead up to the act.  When we are mistreated, we are invited not to retribution, but to reconciliation.  Then, Jesus turns…

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 ever climbed a fence? It’s been a while, but I remember climbing fences when I was a kid. The goal (even though I didn’t say this to myself at the time) was to get on the other side so I could keep going. Many of…

“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 well pleased.”’ Later in Jesus’ ministry, as documented in Matthew 17 at his Transfiguration, we read:‘…there he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light… a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from…