Jesus was this kind of giver. He is the greatest sign to us that life need not be dreary, need not be saved, but can be, must be, entirely spent. It is fear that makes us hold on to life or to what represents life’s meaning for us. The cross marked the place in...
Lent is not meant to provide comfort for the feelings of sinfulness of those who are comfortable. Rather, the Gospel texts for Lent raise suspicion against the wielding of power in this world as a means of salvation.
Resurrection means the life we know is not all there is to life. God may introduce surprises to all unfolding stories. Face it. We often feel bound by history, both corporate and personal. Most of us seldom use the term “fate",” but we act as if our lives are already...
For generations the church has been polarized between those who see the main task being the saving of souls for heaven and the nurturing of those souls through the valley of this dark world, on the one hand, and on the other hand those who see the task of improving...
The quality of mercy is not strain’d, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: It is twice bless’d; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: … And earthly power doth then show likest God’s When mercy seasons justice. In the course of...
Beware lest you make Christ into a Moses, and the gospel into a book of law or doctrine… In fact, however, the gospel demands no works to make us holy and to redeem us. Indeed, it condemns such works, and demands only faith in Christ, because he has overcome sin,...
The first way in which a soul is united with God is through salvation, solely by grace, This is followed by a period in which a saved soul comes to know God through a series of experiences, some of which bring it into closer union with him and some take it further...
It’s not that if they accept Jesus into their life then “Bam! Life is great!” Accepting Jesus into their life does mean that Jesus is walking alongside them in their pain, frustration, and loneliness. And salvation is wrapped up in that.
The current situation, in which faith professed has little impact on the whole or life, is not unique to our times, nor is it a recent development. But it is currently at an acute stage. History has brought us to the point where the Christian message is thought to be...
Salvation can never come from crosses only. Salvation can only come from a cross whose incumbent hanging there has some kind of a future. Salvation has to come from somebody whom a cross cannot hold. It has to come from someone of whom a cross cannot dispose....