Thinking Thankfully

Today is Thanksgiving and with all holidays, for some folks today brings joy and anticipation (can you say cranberry sauce and stuffing? Football? Seeing family, throwing around little nephews, and perhaps even a nap?) and for others it brings none of those things in parenthesis and maybe even sadness and despair. Yet…God’s Word instructs us […]

Dark Valleys

It’s been one of those times where we see lots of suffering around us. People passing away, marriages stuck in cycles of pain and disfunction, hopes and dreams not coming to fruition, chronic illness and pain not getting better, people reaping the consequences of very bad decisions, innocent children caught in the crossfire…the list goes […]

Drawn Away

Have you worshiped a carved image lately? Yeah. Me neither. When we think about idolatry we sometimes can go to one of two extremes – one way is to think that it doesn’t relate to us at all, because let’s face it I’m not going to bow down and prostrate myself before a piece of […]

Going Beyond

In Matthew 5:43-48 is another well known passage where Jesus is teaching on loving your enemies. Matt 5:44 says “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Bonhoffer in “Cost of Discipleship” clarifies enemies are those who have hostility against us, not necessarily those against who we have hostility against. How we […]

Seeking Joy and Trusting

But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me. (Psalm 13:5, 6 ESV) This is part of Psalm 13 where David is lamenting to God “How Long? Will you forget me forever?!” We’ve all been there, […]

You Think He Doesn’t Know?

He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see? He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke? He who teaches man knowledge— the Lord —knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath. (Psalm 94:9-11 ESV) Sometimes I think we convince ourselves that […]

The Things that Cannot Be Shaken

I spent some time in Hebrews 12-13 this morning. So much good stuff in there, but what particularly grabbed me was Hebrews 12:18-28. In the Old Testament, God spoke to Israel at Mt. Sinai and everything shook, they were terrified. That same God is speaking to us today, there is not two different Gods – […]

Words

As I was reading thru the book of James this AM, I was reminded of how many times in this book we are exhorted to keep a close eye on the words that come out of our mouths: Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger (1:19) If anyone thinks he is religious […]

Preventing Drift

Psalm 130 reminds us of a stark truth “if you, LORD should mark iniquities, who could stand?” In other words, if God actually treated any of us like our sins really deserved we should be treated NONE of us are standing. Here’s the but – “but with you there is forgiveness, that you may be […]

Jesus in Judges

I read Judges 13 this morning and it kinda felt like I had never read it before. It was like maybe little elves (spiritual elves, of course) came and added it to my Bible overnight. (C’mon…it could happen.) It is a whole chapter – 25 verses – describing the encounter(s) of Samson’s parents with the […]