When the inevitable round of new-year-new-you articles and advertisements come out, my inbox fills with guilt-inducing, wishful-thinking, low-monthly-payment plans for transformation. Jesus has His own plan for change. He started His earthly ministry with the message: “change your thinking.” This is much more slippery to grasp than a five-step plan Read more…
On the eleventh day of Christmas my True Love gave to me… eleven risen meetings! Our True Love who rose from the dead after dying as a pure, willing sacrifice for our sins expected skepticism regarding this resurrection, and provided ample evidence for it. Among the compelling body of reasons Read more…
On the twelfth day of Christmas my True Love gave to me… twelve gates of heaven! This twelfth gift is one that bears more consideration that we tend to give it, unless someone dear to us is at the brink of death. Heaven! The place where no one cries or Read more…
On the tenth day of Christmas my True Love gave to me… ten filled commandments. The Ten Commandments, the foundation of every just system of law, represents how God wants to be treated and how that treatment works itself out in our flesh-and-blood relationships. Jesus taught that God’s intent for Read more…
On the ninth day of Christmas my True Love gave to me…nine fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control: the nine-flavored fruit is fragrant evidence of the presence and work of the God’s own Spirit in our lives. It describes a living still-life Read more…
On the eighth day of Christmas my True Love gave to me…eight days of His Name. Jewish babies are traditionally given their names on the eighth day after their birth. This one had His declared before His birth, but on the eighth day, it was official! What’s in this name? Read more…
On the seventh day of Christmas my True Love gave to me…the seven-fold Spirit. Of all the gifts given us by our True Love, this one is the most intimate! This is the one that makes “Emmanuel” mean something! “God With Us” becomes “God Within Us” because of this gift: Read more…
On the sixth day of Christmas my True Love gave to me…six days of nature. Beauty. Adventure. Science. Revelation! All these are what our True Love brought us in this gift. God make the world and everything that is in it in six days…out of nothing…except the words from His Read more…