03598 – Soul-Searching

Perhaps the path or method of soul search is merely recognition that all our acts of knowledge are attempts to remember what we once knew, but we have forgotten. Perhaps all of our attempts are sacred actions whose profound motive is salvation or redemption. Perhaps...

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02897 – Understanding the Trinity

God’s image shines through us most clearly in the act of creation — comprising the three stages of Idea, Expression and Recognition — and by reproducing this act we may begin to grasp, by analogy, the Trinity. from Reaching for the Invisible God

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02210 – Using Gender-Inclusive Language

As the father of two girls (now also grandfather of three), I have cringed listening to some preachers and teachers in the church make perfectly good points while using solely male pronouns during their exposition... There are, indeed, “hidden figures” in our...

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01981 – Unity vs. Uniformity

Unity is not the same as uniformity. Unity, in fact, is the reconciliation of differences, and those differences must be maintained. We must actually distinguish things and separate them, usually at a cost to ourselves, before we can spiritually unite them (Ephesians...

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01231 – Love Never Dies

By all appearances, it is a Good Friday world. But by the light of Easter, through the thick darkness covering the nations, we can dimly discern a "Yes, but" kind of message. Yes, fear and self-righteousness, indifference and sentimentality kill; but love never dies,...

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01127 – Where is Beauty?

Composers know how to use harmony and melody like a net to catch beauty's colors and radiance. And when we like what we hear, we open our pores to take in more--just as we close them against what seems ugly or offensive. Isn't that why we remember so vividly the hours...

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00250 – Hospitality = Recognition of Worth

People view hospitality as quaint and tame partly because they do not understand the power of recognition. When a person who is not valued by society is received by a socially respected person or group as a human being with dignity and worth, small transformations...

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00220 – Gratitude and Grace

The foremost quality of a trusting disciple is gratefulness. Gratitude arises from the lived perception, evaluation, and acceptance of all of life as grace—as an undeserved and unearned gift from the Father’s hand. Such recognition is itself the work of grace, and...

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