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Christ is able to know our hurts
“Jesus is not Zeus. He was a sinless man, not a sinless Superman. He woke up with bed head. He had pimples at thirteen. He never would have been on the cover of Men’s Health (he had “no beauty that we should desire him,” Isa. 53:2). He came as a normal man to normal men. He knows what it is…
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The heartbreaking temptation to prove ourselves
THIS ARTICLE from Russell Moore is a must read. We don’t want to just know we’re “right”… we want to WIN and then shove it in the faces of people who think we’re wrong. Much of what passes for “political action” or even just “cultural engagement” is really about a sense of injury—more specifically a sense of humiliation: “You think…
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The heart of Christ
“Jesus walked the earth rehumanizing the dehumanized and cleansing the unclean. Why? Because his heart refused to let him sleep in. Sadness confronted him in every town. So wherever he went, whenever he was confronted with pain and longing, he speaks the good contagion of his cleansing mercy.” — Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners…
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The road to Emmaus
One of my favorite Gospel stories is Luke 24:13-35. Jesus comes on two men as they walk to Emmaus. They are feeling a sense of hopelessness because their hope, Jesus, had been crucified… and now his body was missing. NT Wright sums up the passage’s meaning:
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Easter can’t be one day!
Eastertide is a season in the Church going 50 days to Pentecost. I’ve found I can learn a lot about Advent and Lent, times of preparation, discipline, and repentance. But Christmastide and Eastertide, times of celebration, are not as well walked out in the Church, and, quite honestly, in my life. Easter can’t be contained to one day!
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Our cultural blindness
Over the past several years I have become more aware of a blindness we carry in the American white evangelical church regarding sin.
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Holy Saturday
The body is in the tomb. The hopes of the disciples are locked in darkness. This is a day I try to feel more than any other. That feeling of… what now? That feeling of… what happened?
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Good Friday
This is the most somber of all days. It is often marked by fasting, abstinence, and penitence. The church is stark in its decor this day, a reminder of the sorrow of what is happening. We remember what Christ has done for us and for the world. We pray solemn prayers on this day. They are much needed prayers.
