"Prosperity gospel" is saying certain principles, behaviors, practices, and obedience is necessary for God's blessing. If it's essentially "God wants you to do X and you (or your children) will be Y," that's a transactional relationship with God.
I've learned, over many years, that church isn't about order or quiet or even ritual so much as it is about showing up. For yourself, for God, and for the people around you who need to feel--just as you do--that the blessings and burdens of being a human are not...
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power, as no nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand...
People who know they will die live very carefully. Not careful as in fearful; careful as in full of care. Every word, every act, every relationship holds the possibility of giving birth to something filled with great care. And that thing need not be showy or dramatic,...
Far from an act of spiritual cowardice, surrender is an act of spiritual power because it opens the heart directly to the more subtle realms of spiritual Wisdom and energy. One hands over, in the poet Dante's beautiful image, into "the love that moves the stars and...
The empowerment of the Spirit is not earned; it is freely given. And so with the early church at Pentecost. It was not their courage or clarity that evoked the blessing of the Spirit, for they were vulnerable and confused. The Spirit is a gift, not a possession. The...
“The meek are partakers of the divine blessing…for they shall inherit the land.” In English, the word “meek” has come to be about the same as “weak” or “harmless” or “spiritless.” It is thought that a meek person is something of a doormat upon which others wipe their...