What’s the biggest thing you and God have ever done together? If you are thinking “coming to faith in Christ,” Paul tells us in Ephesians that that’s pretty much all God, with even the faith to believe coming to us a gift. He takes us while we are completely unable Read more
I have been reading the book of Daniel lately. Fascinating stuff! Even if you are not a history buff, you have probably heard the basic Sunday-school stories, often told with Daniel as the hero and main character of the stories, and the “lesson” of most of them being: If you Read more
Knowing that our God is intimately aware and knowledgeable of all our inner thoughts as well as outer deeds can be a reason to clothe ourselves in fig leaves and hide in the bushes, or it can be the best reason to run to Him with our hearts, twisted and Read more
Who considers that when Jesus washed feet, He washed twelve pairs…not eleven? The cobblestone city streets were likely to be strewn with animal droppings and covered with dusty dirt or clingy mud. Even in sandals, feet sweat. Especially in sandals, they were the most likely limb to be injured and Read more
Since the beginning of the disease-generated restrictions, most of us have experienced what happens when invitation collides with separation; the pain combines with creativity: graduation exercises conducted by robot in a mostly empty auditorium, drive-by birthday parties, masked air-hugs, group video chats, home-style 3D printers creating face masks to protect Read more
We have been blessed with a house on a good-sized lot, and since the first year we lived here, I have had a vegetable garden and some fruit-bearing plants. Fruitful? Indeed! Beautiful? Hmmm…maybe not so much. For a while. I have been asking God to give me what I needed Read more
This day has been a pain in the back. Literally. I have been sitting with a sock of heated beans against my lower back all morning. I don’t know what I did to it; I just know it hurts to bend, reach, stretch and, worst of all, walk! Actually, there Read more
By this we know love, that He laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. –I John 3:16 It was a bright, chilly morning near the base of Cat Peaks in Usery Park. Fifteen or so of us had made our Read more
Ancient covenants were more like peace treaties, but between ruler and subjects. The sovereign promised protection from enemies and provision of shelter and sustenance. The burden for these two things rested on the one ruling. The subjects were responsible for loyalty and obedience. They were not to commit treason, or Read more
O holy Child of Bethlehem, Descend to us, we pray; Cast out our sin and enter in, Be born in us today. Jesus came to show us the Father. Everything true about Jesus is true about the Father. To have Jesus born in us…means we are never far from His Read more