Christianity is…a religion of resistance and a religion of hope. The point of the cross is not finally suffering and death; it is, rather, that a relationship holds. There is a love stronger than death, that can withstand whatever the forces of evil do against it, and...
Surrender—putting one’s life at God’s disposal—is the most truly Christian prayer. It is the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane—”Not my will, but thine.” It is the heart of the prayer Jesus taught the apostles—”Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth...
Worship dare not be glib or superficial, ought not to dispense false assurances or manipulate emotions. Instead, genuine worship always offers the true hope of the Gospel—neither entertainment nor escapism, neither diversion nor another sort of consumerism, but the...
What if [instead of just the “wow” moments in worship] we actively pursue the joy of the ordinary? What if in this season of Lent, when we verbalize our “ashes to ashes” condition , we give God glory for the profound nature of His handiwork without feeling that we...
Lent is a time to take the time to let the power of our faith story take hold of us,a time to let the eventsget up and walk around in us,a time to intensify our living unto Christ,a time to hover over the thoughts of our hearts,a time to place our feet in the streets...
So the church announced a season of Lent, from the old English word lenten, meaning “spring”—not only a reference to the season before Easter, but also an invitation to a springtime for the soul. Forty days to cleanse the system and open the eyes to what remains when...
Do not bother looking for Lent in your Bible dictionary, because there was no such thing back then. There is some evidence that early Christians fasted forty hours between Good Friday and Easter, but the custom of spending forty days in prayer and self-denial did not...
Lord, at the beginning of this Lenten season, I sense my need of you,Yet, I am not quite sure how to reach you. I heard someone say, “Read your Bible.”But too often the words are like Bullets that ricochet off my brain. I heard someone say, “Pray.”But my prayers,...
The Christian community is a community of the cross, for it has been brought into being by the cross, and the focus of worship is the Lamb once slain, now glorified. So the community of the cross is a community of celebration, a Eucharistic community, ceaselessly...
Lent is the darkness I enter into so that I can walk into the Light of Easter morning. Lent is the willingness to let the old die so that I can experience again the reality of resurrection. All of this is played out in the everyday, ordinary stuff of my very everyday,...