The good news is that there are no gatekeepers to Jesus. People try to be. Pastors, theologians, churches, and others police theology, enforce legalism, and criticize people's faith. But God loves everyone even when Christians don't.
Life's most persistent and urgent question is, "What are you doing for others?"
Anyone who has lost a loved one knows that you don't recover. Instead, you learn to incorporate their absence and memories into your life and channel your emotional energy toward others, and eventually, your grief will walk beside you instead of consuming you.
When we see others as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others.
Our maturity will be judged by how well we are able to agree to disagree and yet continue to love one another, to care for one another, and cherish one another and seek the greater good of the other.
Where love rules there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.
Community does not necessarily mean living face-to-face with others; rather, it means never losing the awareness that we are connected to each other.
It is easy to bow heads around a tableful of food and family this week and voice words of gratitude. It is more faithful — as followers of Jesus — to do so with a renewed commitment to expressing ongoing gratitude through generosity. Gratitude-driven generosity...
Maybe it's conservatives, or progressives, or a neighbor, or a church member who incessantly says horrible things, who acts unjustly toward others, and plagues us whenever we see them. I know, just the sight of them causes the blood to boil. So much depends upon our...
When we are filled with love for other people, injustice becomes intolerable.