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Jesus and crowds
The interesting picture in John 6 with Jesus and crowds is that Jesus knew they were following him because of the signs and the food. He then worked to thin it down. If they didn’t understand the full ramifications of the Kingdom, he wanted them to quit hanging around. He is working on them to get away from the shallow pursuits.…
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Masters and Experts
A current thought I am stirring around: Don’t strive to be an expert in something. Instead, strive to be a master OF something. The question I bat around is this: If I am an expert in something, is it just knowledge? (Such as an expert in Church History.) If I am a “master” of something, it’s beyond knowledge. I think…
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Anchor of our soul
We need the tie of generations in the faith because each generation can demonstration the depth of faith that is possible. We can observe that in the generations that came before. We can learn from them. When we demonstrate the depth of faith, a faith that cannot be shaken, and demonstrate the faithfulness of God, we can then explain that to the next…
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Mind and Soul
With one foot squarely in the ministry world and another foot barely in the academic world, I am constantly challenged by our “either/or” thinking. I may be wrong about the world truly being “both/and.” Maybe it’s not. Maybe you have to be either uber-smart… and an academic who is very capable at writing, but not very capable at other forms of communication……
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Moving forward
For my denomination it seems so long compared to other groups, but we’re making some nice steps. For our own (small) church we are seeing two women go through the ordination process. I am excited for the ground they are helping to break. I am thankful they are ministers with me in our church. We have a long way to…
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There is a good side to fear and shame?
Why yes, yes there is. As an adjunct professor dealing with students who blow by assignments without getting them in and expecting me to take them anyway… or to say they loaded them up on the class site… and a week later “notice” it didn’t load up… YES there is a “good” side to fear and shame. We have coddled…
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Paul’s “big hairy audacious goal” for believers
We really want to believe Christianity is about “go big or go home.” We really do. We say it “isn’t about the numbers”… but it’s exactly about the numbers. In church circles we figure out other ways to say, “How many ya runnin’?” without saying exactly that, but still shaming pastors who aren’t in that “big gun” territory. So, we talk about…
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I dream of a day when we quit ranking sins
It’s not about particular sins. It’s about SIN. It’s about our rebellion against God. It’s about our desire to be our own little gods. But when we are in our own little rebellions, we feel better about pointing out someone else’s “worse” sin. I pray for the day, just in my own life, when I’m done to ranking sin. 9 So what…
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The easy distractions of this noisy world
Daniel 7 is a key chapter in understanding all that follows regarding Jesus’ ministry. It is probably here that Jesus draws his use of “Son of Man,” or “Human One” in the Common English Bible. It is a vision of distractions and a vision that calls us to focus. The distractions are the violent actions of this world. They really…
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Book Review — Living in Christ’s Presence
Living in Christ’s Presence has Dallas Willard as the author, which is appropriate. It is more a collaboration. The book came to me with a DVD of the sessions given by Dallas Willard and John Ortberg not long before Dallas passed away. The book is a transcript of those lectures by Ortberg and Willard, along with the transcripts of their conversations.…
