Grace is the breath that immediately follows a failure, the breath that reminds us life is not ended by one mistake or measured by one moment. Grace is the breath with which we make amends and start again. Grace, like breath, should never be wasted.
Family dysfunction rolls down from generation to generation, like a fire in the woods, taking down everything in its path until one person in one generation has the courage to turn and face the flames. That person brings peace to their ancestors and spares the...
The church is not an institution forcing us to follow rules but a community inviting us to still our hunger and thirst at its table.
"Spare the rod, spoil the child." But shepherds don't beat their sheep with the rod. The rod is used to steer the sheep, as a support when the shepherd is tired, and as a weapon to defend the herd from harm. Sheep follow the shepherd because his kindness makes him...
As the characters in the story maintain a safe distance from Jesus, speculating among themselves about this new powerful teacher, readers of Mark are invited to follow Jesus into a whole new world, says New Testament scholar Brian Blount, into "Mark's world of Jesus...
The word “scapegoating” originated from an ingenious ritual described in Leviticus 16. According to Jewish law, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest laid hands on an “escaping” goat, placing all the sins of the Jewish people from the previous year onto the animal....
They said that if I questioned a 6,000-year-old earth, I would question whether other parts of Scripture should be read scientifically and historically. They were right. I did. They said that if I entertained the hope that those without access to the gospel might...
It is this ideal of kingship that is manifested most perfectly in the life and mission of Jesus of Nazareth. ...The ideal of kingship furnished the content for the messianic tradition, the tradition which was fulfilled in the life of Christ and which is the challenge...
It is quite impossible for any of us to measure ourselves and estimate our progress. Our job, having found the path we honestly believe God wishes us to follow, is to go quietly on with it and leave the results to Him! from Letters (February 21,...
The question is not whether we should mix Christianity and politics. To follow Jesus is to be political. The issue is whether our understanding of Christianity makes the world more gracious or less gracious. Do we work against injustice, oppression, greed, and...