Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety. Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and...
01504 – Going Where Questions Lead
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...
01456 – Holding On to Darkness and Light
Our Christian wisdom is to name the darkness as darkness, and the Light as light, and to learn how to live and work in the Light so that the darkness does not overcome us. If we have a pie-in-the-sky, everything-is-beautiful attitude, we are in fact going to be...
01438 – Jesus Understands Us
The person to whom we pray, the man we hope to follow, the one who is risen from the dead, understands us--because he lived a human life, and one that, particularly in his final week, was filled with suffering. from Seven Last Words: An Invitation to a Deeper...
01425 – Power and Corruption; Powerlessness & Self-Hatred
Isaiah understood what Lord Acton failed to note, that it is not only power that tends to corrupt, and absolute power absolutely; powerlessness does the same. It produces lives dreary with self-hatred and stingy with hope. from Credo
01384 – Trusting in God’s Miracles
It makes no sense to cling to small hopes. We are emboldened to ask God for something bigger. The same faith that looks clear-eyed at the immensity of the forces arrayed against God is the faith that affirms God's miracle-working power. Trust in miracles is, in fact,...
01341 – Waiting in Hope
Today we begin to wait, for the essence of Advent is waiting and expectation. We wait in hope, for waiting demands hope. But when we consider, we know that hope can have two meanings. It can refer to an attitude of heart: we say we feel hopeful. But it can also point...
01208 – Simply Gathering for Worship Bucks Societal Trends
By simply gathering on the Lord's day, as Christians have done from the first days, by forming a genuine community not just in word but in deed, the assembly bucks the trend of society. In doing so we are allowing ourselves to be shaped by God, and thereby place...
01186 – Triumphal Entry Procession Leads to Jesus’ Death
Mark depicts an entry which is triumphal only for Jesus' followers who have not yet understood his destiny as Son of Man. For Jesus, it is an entry into suffering and death. He enters Jerusalem as a pilgrim, and as more than a pilgrim. He makes no response to a royal...
01090 – Begin the Day in Joy, Hope, and Deep Gladness
We ask only that your faithfulness permeate every troubled place we are able to name, that your mercy move against the hurts to make new, that your steadfastness hold firmly what is too fragile on its own. And we begin the day in joy, in hope, and in deep gladness....