Let joy be your continual feast. Make your life a prayer. And in the midst of everything be always giving thanks, for this is God’s perfect plan for you in Christ Jesus. – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 This is one rainy, dreary, un-festive Monday morning! So I am especially grateful, then, that my Sunday was such…
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” – Jesus, John 14:27 When I wrote my Advent devotional book, the peace section was probably the trickiest part of the project to nail down.…
Read more What Does Peace Look Like? “Let not your hearts be troubled”
“If you stop trampling the Sabbath, stop doing whatever you want on my holy day, and consider the Sabbath a delight, sacred to the Lord, honored, and honor it instead of doing things your way, seeking what you want and doing business as usual, then you will take delight in the Lord. I will let you ride on the heights of the earth; I will…
Read more How Protestant Christians can benefit from the “sacred rhythms” of the Christian Year
“Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen. This testimony of faith is what previous generations were commended for. Faith empowers us to see that the universe was created and beautifully coordinated…
John wore clothes made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. He announced, “One stronger than I am is coming after me. I’m not even worthy to bend over and loosen the strap of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the…
Jesus came to do away with the exclusions, the holier-than-thou's, the finger-pointing, the peremptory judgments. Jesus replaced all that with an invitation
Read more Jesus is God’s wide-open Invitation! Advent week 3
It is not too late to get Christmas right this year. It is not too late to join the Magi and follow the star. It is not too late to begin the journey home.
When we understand the implications of Grace, then conflict necessarily lives outside the bounds of grace's covering
filtered through the lens of God's spectacular initiative of love and grace in Jesus.
Read more I’m dreaming of a “festive, quirky, faith-filled” Christmas…
Jesus is actually here, the moment is now, and his birth, the miracle of Christmas, is completely accessible and present today, here in December 2018.
Read more The Advent of the Birth of Promise – this is the day to come home to church!
