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Loving the World
Was it an old Keith Green song that said, “You love the world, but you’re avoiding Me”? 1 John is clear about NOT loving the world. He gives us examples: craving what the body feels, craving for what the eyes see, and the arrogant pride of one’s possessions. (CEB). Sounds like it pretty much includes… everything. What IS loving the…
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The Gospel of Mark and the Power of the Kingdom
As we read the Gospel of Mark for this week, I have worked on a theory: Everything Mark does in his gospel flows from Mark 1:15. I have no idea if this is actual or not… and I’ve not had enough time, resources, millions of volumes of others who think about this stuff, etc., to truly “analyze” it. It’s just…
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The Offer They Couldn’t Refuse
We are in the Gospel of Mark this week. Pay attention to the significant differences between Luke, Matthew, and Mark. Mark starts off like a starter’s pistol in a sprint. He doesn’t seem to slow down for anything in the first few chapters. But I want him to slow it up. I want him to explain to me how Jesus…
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White Knuckle Christianity
Growing up in a conservative church was more about what you didn’t do rather than what you DID do. That’s just life. We all have things growing up we need to learn how to adjust. Those things may not need to be tossed overboard. They may just need to be readjusted. But when you grow up worrying about the things…
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Use It or Lose It
I do the vast majority of my work on computer now, but I am a fan of pens. Good pens. I love fountain pens. If I take the time to journal, I try to have a fountain pen nearby. The ink on my hands is just fun for me. My “better” fountain pen has a cartridge where I draw ink…
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Full Blown, Driving Passion
I am meditating on passion. Dreaming dreams. Asking God for the impossible. The questions I am asking are these: — Where is the place where I find the heart of God? — What motivates me in life? What truly stirs my heart and I find myself sensing the true pleasure of God in it? — Where to my gifts meet…
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Jesus Invites Change… Without Asking
Making my way through the Gospel of Luke this week, and reflecting on other passages in other gospels, I find something interesting. In Luke 19 Zacchaeus is a tax collector wanting to see Jesus. He pays to get the skybox view (which are the better seats at a baseball field, I’m told) and looks for Jesus. As Jesus passes by,…
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The Costs are so Clear
We are on our way at our church as we journey to read through the New Testament this summer. Our assignment for next Sunday is the Gospel of Luke. One of the striking movements in Luke is how at the beginning of the Gospel there is such joy at the prospect of following Jesus. Men and women are dropping what…
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Can We Pray for the End of Bondage?
10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.”…
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Jesus is Honest About the Cost of the Kingdom… Why Aren’t We?
35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he…
Category: Spiritual hunger
