There is a record in the gospel of Matthew of an amazing interaction between a desperate mother and a powerful Savior. Jesus had been teaching on the far side of the Sea of Galilee, but had moved from east to west and retreated to the area of Tyre and Sidon, north and west of the...
The text came early. "Thank you for letting us stay. You were so kind. We are on our way home now. Oh, and by the way, the toilet in the last stall of the ladies' room is clogged. We tried to open it but were unsuccessful." My first thought was actually, "If that's all there...
Today was Earth Day. Lots of people excited to express their appreciation for the planet upon which we live and move and have our being. Unfortunately, and officially, there was no apparent room in the celebration for the Creator of all in whom we live and move and have our being. Here's a quote regarding the...
One of the difficulties of committing to a blog, for me, is not a problem of not knowing what to say. It is a problem of knowing how and when to say it. Often as I read news articles, social commentaries, Facebook posts, tweets, and other blogs, I find myself disappointed, disgusted, infuriated, or arrogantly...
Second Timothy 3:1-17 seems like an odd passage for Good Friday. The cross is not mentioned at all. Jesus is only mentioned twice and almost in passing. The focus is on last days spiritual conditions and the call to faithfulness to the word of God. So, why choose this text for this day? This text does...
Maundy Thursday marks the day before Christ is crucified. It is the night Jesus institutes the "Lord's Supper" and sets an example for His disciples when he washes their feet. The name, "Maundy Thursday," comes from a corrupted form of a Latin word from which we get our English word "mandate." You could say this...
John, in his inspired effort to derail false teachers and prevent his congregation from following them into the worship of idols (as if Christ were somehow insufficient for their faith and life), consistently holds Christ up to their examination and requires them to consider what spiritual condition they have already achieved and is already true...
This meditation comes from the memorial service for a federal law enforcement officer in our community: If there remains one passage from the Christian scriptures, the Bible, that is still widely recognized in our day, it is probably this passage from the book of Psalms: Psalm 23. The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He...
My sleep was filled with ghoulish nightmares last night, dreams of sealed coffins and relentless zombies and crying out for deliverance in the name of Jesus. I have no idea where those ideas came from, or why, since I never indulge in those story lines or images in any recreational or research format. Perhaps it...
A friend posted this on her Facebook page yesterday: "I just got done putting wood in our wood boiler and got in the car to drive the boys to the library. One son said, 'Oh mom, you smell just like smoked salmon . . . no, more like smoked lake trout.' I responded, 'Is that...
