The Unbending Grace of God

I've spent most of this morning working on internet technology that normally works pretty well, but that decided to make today more 'interesting' for me. Do you have days like that with technology? Or maybe you're blessed enough to get by without it! Regardless, anything made by humans will have its failings. What I'm glad about right now, is that the grace of God does not

Jesus and "All"

When I was in middle school, I had a teacher who was from Oklahoma and had the accent to prove it. One time she mentioned her brother who worked on 'all wells,' and it took us awhile to figure out she meant 'oil wells'! The same kind of misunderstanding can happen when people read the 'all' scriptures in the Bible and assume it means something less than 'all.' And that reading

What's Hiding in There?

The Lovely Joanne and I just purchased a carpet cleaning machine to restore our old carpets a little. We vacuum regularly, with a good vacuum cleaner, so even with the cats, the carpets should be pretty clean. So we thought. You should have seen the amount of dirt and gunk that came out with the cleaner! (Or maybe not...) I expected some, but not that much!

The same can be true in my spiritual life, and yours too. We tend to know some

Following Jesus More, Loving More

On Sunday, I read a tribute about a member of a sister congregation in Ohio, that finished with these words: "He loved the Lord Jesus Christ with all his heart." That's about as good as anyone could write about anyone, I think. That's far above accomplishments, work, golf scores, or anything else I can imagine. That love, responding to God's love for us through Jesus, is what

'Into-Me-See'

In Sunday's sermon I spoke about the church (and its members) being the temple of the Holy Spirit, a place where God himself dwells, and that we as that temple can be a place where others meet God. Yet, to accurately 're-present' Father, Son and Holy Spirit to another person, we must be in an intimate relationship with that God by the Spirit who lives in us. How?

Intimacy with another human being necessarily involves

Jesus Is our OEM

Long ago, in a land far, far away, I owned a car that was having some mechanical issues, so I took it to the garage down the block. They replaced some parts, and the problem got worse. I took it back and asked what had gone wrong, and they finally admitted using after-market parts instead of OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer, for those who don't deal with it much). The mechanics replaced the after-market parts with the OEM versions, and suddenly the problem went away!

Without listing all the scriptures, (and knowing all analogies fail eventually) we could say that the gift of our renewed humanity from Jesus, is that he is the OEM for our humanity. He takes our shoddy after-market parts -- which got us in trouble in the first place, and still don't work right -- and provides us the factory original, shiny and new. He even 'takes it out of the box' for us and installs new thinking in our heads by the Holy Spirit. You could say the "new parts" still have the factory lubrication (the oil of the Holy Spirit) that helps them run smoothly.

Having trouble in life? Poor thinking leading to poor actions that end up hurting yourself and others? Let the Master Mechanic take the after-market parts out, put in the OEM, and everything starts to run more smoothly. Slow down, 'open the hood' of your mind and emotions, and surrender to his loving ministry in your life. You'll not regret it!

Healing: Much More than Physical

In looking over the scriptures from the Lectionary for next Sunday, I see several different aspects of how our lives are changed by the touch of God. We tend to struggle with many things in life, including our physical health, but also with