"Renewal Information Enclosed"

I pulled an envelope out of the mailbox the other day, with "Renewal Information Enclosed" in big letters across the front. I opened it excitedly -- maybe it was an offer for a free vacation somewhere, or even better, a retreat where my spiritual energy could be renewed. No such luck, they were just billing me for another year's membership in this organization. Bummer! But the good news is, renewal information is already inside

You Won't Want to Miss This!

You may remember the story of Rip Van Winkle, who slept for 20 years and woke to a much different world. Have you ever felt like that? I sometimes think that way about my journey through legalism and the first decades of beginning to understand grace. Oh, how good it would be to see all that again, with what I know now! Some days I still miss the point (I'll get back to that). How is

The Spirit-Walk

What if you could live in complete confidence? I don't mean that you would magically know the winning lottery numbers or which British football team will win the championship (it was Leicester City). What I mean is, could you be confident in knowing that your everyday actions and your words toward others would

Your Bootstraps Just Broke (reprise from 2014)

When I was a boy, people used the expression "pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps" -- referring to the loops at the top of some boots that helped get them on your feet. It meant something like "trying to succeed all by yourself, and failing" because physically, it's an impossible stunt! Studying Colossians 1:28-29, it strikes me

More Epiphanies

The season of Epiphany stretches, officially, from January 6 to February 7 this year. It celebrates the "appearing" or "presentation" of Jesus to the public in different ways in his early life. One is at the Temple in Jerusalem (Luke 2), another to the Gentile wise men, or Magi (Matthew 2), still another at his baptism (covered in all four gospels in different ways) and the

Lawyers and Widows and WYSIWYG

Jesus was all about sincerity and dedication. Those were and are two of his best qualities, IMHO (in my humble opinion, if you didn't know). Jesus was always truthful and and WYSIWYG ("What you see is what you get"). Some of those around him, not so much, you might say. Jesus appreciated

Core-Strengthening Exercises

The Lovely Joanne and I sometimes exercise together. One of the types of exercise we do is to strengthen "the core" which means those muscles that hold you up, and the ones that hold your innards where they belong. That's supposed to help you sit, stand and move in a more balanced way. There's also a spiritual side to that idea of core-strengthening, that has to do with

Be Still and Know...Part 1

Our neighborhood has half a dozen dogs that take turns yapping at, well, whatever dogs yap at. They seem to like hearing themselves, and each other. They don't seem to have much appreciation

Oh, For Joy!

I can't get over it. There was something going on in the minds of all the followers of Jesus after he was crucified and then raised out of the grave, that keeps coming back to surprise me and to make me,

Praying for Our Enemies

This very insightful post was written by Judy Wu Dominick on her blog, lifereconsidered.com.  I suggest it for your reading and edification. It sobered me and has given me much to pray about in my own life.

http://lifereconsidered.com/2015/02/22/praying-for-our-enemies/

May you be blessed today.

The End of Conflict

Last night some friends and I discussed part of a book called "Life Together." A German pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about church life, during the Nazi persecution of the Lutheran church in Germany during WWII.  Brother Dietrich realized that if the church didn't

Being, Becoming and Doing as the Church

Last week I used football as an illustration of how, as followers of Jesus, our 'being and becoming' leads to doing Jesus' will, and how as we grow in 'becoming' like Jesus, we grow in 'doing' too. If you missed that post, click here to read it.  But did you realize the same

A New You

This is an outline of a sermon I would have given except for being snowed out.  I hope you enjoy it!

Main scripture, 2 Cor. 3:7-18 -- the old covenant versus the new.  Here are some contrasts between the old, based in the law, and the new, built on Christ:

Law, leading to death, vs. the Spirit

Prayer Is a Big Deal

Jesus prayed constantly. One of his more meaningful and critical times of prayer was at the garden of Gethsemane, shortly before he was arrested, beaten and crucified. The gospel of Luke makes it plain in chapter 22: this was

Sons and Daughters, not Slaves

From another blog, a post quoting John Stott's commentary on Galatians: 
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/gospeldrivenchurch/2014/07/30/the-life-of-sons-and-daughters/

Here's the quote:
“The Christian life is the life of sons and daughters; it is not the life of slaves. It is freedom, not bondage. Of course, we are slaves of God, of Christ, and of one another. We belong to God, to Christ, to one another, and we love to serve those to whom we belong. But this kind of service is freedom.
“What the Christian life is not, is a bondage to the law, as if our salvation hung in the balance and depended on our meticulous and slavish obedience to the letter of the law.
“As it is, our salvation rests upon the finished work of Christ, on His sin-bearing, curse-bearing death, embraced by faith.”

Bearing Fruit For a Long Time

A Chinese proverb asks "What's the best time to plant a tree?" The answer is "Twenty years ago!" Trees are symbols of stability and strength (Psa. 92:12), long life and contributing to one's surroundings (Psalm 1). Jesus uses a grapevine in John 15 to

Rooted to Be Fruited

We moderns think fruit comes out of a can or from a grocery store, so the illustration Jesus used of a vine in John 15 to describe bearing spiritual fruit is less clear than when people had more knowledge of agriculture. We might think it's about us (the branches) making fruit

Before Time, There Was...

Did anything exist before the universe was here? We have a hard time imagining something that could exist before, well, anything existed (if the word "universe" means "space and time and energy and everything"). But if God exists, which I believe he does, he was around before he made

Confession and Grace

We don't like accepting our weaknesses and sins (those we can admit, theoretically, that we might have). And we hope nobody else can see any, so we show up in public with our Public Face on. But God already knows what's wrong with each human, and he gives each one total forgiveness in Christ. And James 5:16 tells the church community, as we work together, "Confess

How to Treat One Another

I just saw this post on another blog and it's so good, I want to share it here. This is an 'infographic' which means it's easy to absorb visually but has great information in it.

http://overviewbible.com/one-another-infographic/

If you wonder how we should treat each other, this is a good place to start.

What do you think?