The Non-Prideful God
Would you serve God if no one ever noticed, recognized or praised it? Would you be happy to serve God in an unknown place, in some forgotten Nazareth? Would you be happy to never be celebrated or acclaimed? It is easy, even in the work of the Lord, to labor with a subtle pride.
Longing For Worship
The Great Commandment is that we love God with our whole being. This is worship that includes the whole person: body, soul and spirit. We were meant to worship God, to honor Him and live our lives in gratitude to Him. It gives meaning to our lives because it orients us to our Creator.
Redeeming Your Story
Redemption involves the redemption of our stories. When we try to live our lives, doing it our way, our stories become self-destructive. We were meant to live our story inside of God’s story; it is the story of His people who live in loving trust of their Heavenly Father. God’s love calls us back
Our Battles
Some of our battles are not over in a day, a week or a year. Oh, how we wish they were! They require courage, resistance, determination, perseverance and pleas for God’s help day after day. Yes, we remember some battles God fought for us to a decisive victory. There are others that He stands
Saved From A Failure To Love
"You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). This is declared to be salvation FROM our sins. Jesus taught us that sin is at its core a failure to love. His salvation then involves saving us FROM our failure to love. This is what
Get The Hang of It
We are both objects of grace and channels of grace. What flows to us from God is to flow out of us toward others. Character begins to mature when we start giving grace spontaneously. Remember when you learned to ride a bicycle. You had to think about every little thing to keep from falling,
Not Easy
Most of us can give quick and easy advice to our sisters and brothers in their tough times. What is much harder is to take our own easy advice in our most difficult struggles. What this all means is simply this: struggling in life is real; it comes with the territory. Pain is no
Poverty Making Rich
Paul wrote of the early apostles, “as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything” (2 Corinthians 6:10). A competitive consumer world does not understand this; they cannot. The greedy hate the very idea. The prosperity gospel has turned this word on its head; they make many poor so that
The Only Way To Live
We may claim Jesus is the only way and yet mock it by our harsh words, brash unkindness, and blatant disobedience to His words. We may believe that His words are unrealistic in our world, but still claim Him as our way to heaven. Living His words is the way we walk the way.
The Shepherd’s Voice
Voices come to us and call us from different directions and for different reasons. As sheep, we are tasked with listening to and hearing one voice. “He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep
I Need You
Father, may Your light guide me. May Your holiness shape me. May Your compassion grip me. May Your strong arm deliver me. May Your mercy rescue me. May Your Spirit fill me. May Your love flow through me. May Your Word transform me. May Your nature change my nature to be like You.
Mystery as Greater Reality
Mystery is not to enter an unreal world; God’s mystery is true reality. We are so given to want to explain everything. Our superlative adjectives used to describe Him fall very short in approaching Him who lives in “unapproachable Light”. Everything from incarnation. to Trinity, to atonement, to sacraments, to intercession are all wrapped
Slave to All
What was scandalous to the Roman world was that slaves were fully welcomed into Christian communities. Further, slaves partook of common meals and the Lord’s Supper along with the rich. What was shocking about Jesus’ teaching was that all of us are to be slaves to all. We like “servant of all” better because
Celebrating The Saints
In the NT all Christians are saints (“holy ones”). We are called saints, and we are called to be saints. This day celebrates saints living on earth and those who live in the presence of the Lord in heaven now. The two groups are one body. It also reminds us that Christians on
Twisted Love
Paul saw a time when love would be warped. Folks would be “unloving” to others but “lovers of self”. They love money and what it will bring them. They are boastful, conceited, revilers and arrogant because of their kind of self-love. They love pleasure but they do not love God. Any godliness they profess
Joint Heirs
Children of God are heirs with Jesus. We are joint heirs. We enter into an inheritance with Him. What is His is ours in Him. The Kingdom is His and becomes ours. We will rule with Him (2 Timothy 2:12, (Revelation 20:4). “All things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ
His Beloved Children
Jesus was declared as God’s beloved Son, both at His baptism and transfiguration. By the work of the Beloved we too are beloved. Early Christians anticipated the Holy Spirit to come on them at their baptism as He did at Jesus’ baptism. Water baptism was understood as being administered “unto the baptism of the
Sickness will End
Human history has been strewn with the visitation of plagues. In pre-science times the sources of these were unknown, so various explanations were offered, some of which blamed God, or the sins of the people, for these evils. Humans did not know then that they could come from contaminated water, animals, insects, all bearing
Laziness
I grew up with a strong work ethic, for which I am thankful. Work is good; it is assigned to us by the Creator. We have reached the place that work is a dirty four letter word. We avoid it at all cost. We are so preoccupied with electronic devices we want nothing to
Heart of the Heart
There is in each human being something that has the ability to recognize truth; something that we can’t deceive. Some have called it an “Incorruptible center”. I call it the heart of the heart. Its voice can be ignored, evil folks may seek to silence it. It is what makes us morally responsible; it
Christ in Scripture
The Jewish scriptures have their fulfillment in Christ. Dr. William Greathouse taught us, “Christ is hidden in the OT and revealed in the NT”. The bible bears witness to Jesus (John 5:39-40). Paul reminds us that those who come to Christ have a veil removed from their eyes when they read it. Without Him
Simplicity and Complexity
There is a tension between the simple and the complex. It’s simple, and true to say, “God is love”, but how that works out in touching everything in the universe cannot be put into words. Trusting Christ is simple but how that trust and surrender works out in our daily lives is anything but
Relentless Love
“This is a sure thing: If we die with him, we'll live with him; If we stick it out with him, we'll rule with him; If we turn our backs on him, he'll turn his back on us; if we give up on him, he does not give up— for there's no way he
A Lost Church
The church gets lost when it ceases to truly follow its Lord and His clear teachings. It sins when it becomes infatuated with lesser lords. The church and all believers need to repent of our pursuit of power and influence and get back to nitty-gritty ministry. N. T. Wright recently said, “The love of
Confident Assertions
Paul reminds us that people who assert that they know what they are talking about does not mean that they do. You can be confident about something and not know what you are saying. You can have a hunch about meaning, double down on it, and be dead wrong. Paul knew the OT scriptures,