We must be careful with our lives, for Christ's sake, because it would seem that they are the only lives we are going to have in this puzzling and perilous world, and so they are very precious and what we do with them matters enormously.
“It is not violence that best overcomes hate — nor vengeance that most certainly heals injury." "What then?" "Read the New Testament, and observe what Christ says, and how He acts; make His word your rule, and His conduct your example." "What does He say?" "Love your...
Jesus entered as he did, where he did, doing what he did, because God needed us to finally comprehend the truth: God is not a sky king who heads an empire; God is the love that gives itself away for the sake of more love. Jesus could only communicate that point by...
At the heart of each of us is a compelling hunger for ways to live and be in relationship that are genuine. Too often we choose ways that enslave rather than free us, and so it is with churches as well. What the world longs for are people and churches who have found...
Our deepest fear is that we will be abandoned, left alone. When Christ-followers say, "God be with you" or "Peace be with you," they are speaking directly to something primal, addressing one another's fear with strong reminders of God's abiding presence.
No worst thing ever done in the name of Christianity, no vilest corruption of the Church, can destroy the eternal fact that the core of it is in the heart of Jesus. Branches innumerable may have to be lopped off and cast into the fire, yet the word I AM THE VINE...
With the mistaken view of God as a Punisher-in-Chief that most Christians seem to hold, we think our own violence is necessary and even good. But there is no such thing as redemptive violence. Violence doesn’t save; it only destroys all parties in both the short and...
Consumerism turned the Church into a service provider: "I want good preaching" "I want amazing worship" "I want great kids' programs" Would we go to Church if it was just a bunch of ragamuffin Jesus-followers gathering around a table, trying to love God and love...
At my Christian elementary school, we sang, “Jesus loves the little children…red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in his sight.” In alignment with this song, white people often professed, “I don’t even see color,” reassuring me that I would be safe from...
They who seek Christ are already being sought of him.