“You are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.” A beautiful fact is on display in this simple sentence. Just as the disciples were with Jesus from the beginning of his ministry, so Jesus has been with us from our beginning. God in God’s genius...
Faith is keeping your head up even when you’re standing in a valley. Faith is looking beyond the hills that try to intimidate you. Faith is the lens we look through to understand God’s text messages to us. Faith is knowing God is real, able, good and generous. Faith...
Most folks have a God story. Most are reluctant to tell theirs for fear of seeming weak-minded or childish. Yet, we have them. The Resurrection of Jesus is a God story. It will never be more than that. It will always shake hands with doubt. Still, that God did the...
He lost all his wealth. His children were murdered. His marriage was broken. His friends were enemies. In a desolate season of life Job said, “I know my Redeemer lives….” It would have been easier for him to say: “I’m suffering. All I know is...
“Somehow Isaiah hears God pose a two-part question. ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for us?’ In that moment, Isaiah consents to a partnership with God. A partnership that has always been available to him. But now, because grief and grace have conspired in a...
Faith is many things, but at its base, it’s consent. And, consent is agreement and actualization. It’s more impactful to understand faith in this way than faith being simply intellectual assent to the likelihood of God’s existence or denominational affiliation....
“The concern which I lay bare before You today is: Whatever disaffection there is between me and those who are or have been very close to me— I would seek the root or cause of such disaffection, and with the illumination of Your mind, O God, to understand it. I give...
Many preachers are scared of John the Baptist so they dither about with what he ate or what he wore rather than what he did. What he did was to co-create moments with God so hearts could change. What he did was refuse to placate people or reduce to pablum the notion...
It can all be so exhausting: life, livelihood, striving, even spirituality with its laundry list of how to be. Maybe that’s why Psalm 130 is one of my favorites. The poet seems to want one thing, to enjoy God! When last did you just enjoy God? The fact of God? The way...
Jesus of Nazareth was dispatched to us by God as God because loves the world. Because of that act, Jesus is peerless when it comes to name recognition. From the beginning, groups have used Jesus’ name with little allegiance to his Name. I call them Jesus but Not Jesus...
