-
I am on a temporary visa
1 Peter 2:11–12 (CEB)11 Dear friends, since you are immigrants and strangers in the world, I urge that you avoid worldly desires that wage war against your lives. 12 Live honorably among the unbelievers. Today, they defame you, as if you were doing evil. But in the day when God visits to judge they will glorify him, because they have observed your…
-
The culture of heaven cultivated in me
As I walk through Colossians 3:1-4:6, I am struck by the characteristics of the kingdom. I need to cultivate these characteristics in my own life. Especially this: “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” (4:2) I think of this prayer in that pursuit: Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to you, so guide our minds, so fill…
-
I didn’t understand deception
This passage meant something entirely different for me when I was in my 20s that today: 2 Timothy 4:3–4 (NLT)3 For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will reject…
-
The culture of heaven
My reading from my “ancient wells” list has me in Colossians 3 currently. I am thinking of the culture of heaven. I am dwelling on the character of the Kingdom. There are some thoughts dwelling in this passage in light of the decision from the Supreme Court yesterday to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
-
Roe vs. Wade
There is just no way of writing something on this topic without, 1. Getting something wrong, and 2. Having others who differ in opinions tell me how much I get it wrong. Thus, I avoid this topic. Yet, this is a huge day. I can write this and get it out and it will be nothing in the midst of…
-
The nourishment of my soul
I have finished Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton. There are some key thoughts from his book that stir my own story. Nourished by the Sacraments and formed by the prayer and teaching of the Church, we need seek nothing but the particular place willed for us by God within the Church.
-
A prayer of wandering
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the…
-
Father’s Day without Dad
His is my first Father’s Day without Dad. It’s been a little over for weeks since his passing. Grief comes and goes. In and out like the tide. No phone call to him. No joking around. No smile to look at, but I do remember.
-
Being trained
Ephesians 4:20–21 (NIV): That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. How have I “learned” Christ? We don’t just “fall” into discipleship or formation. Everyone it gets an education. The question is what kind? This is what I reflect…
-
Do I TRULY believe the Gospel?
2 Corinthians 5:16–17 (NIV)16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! This is Paul’s appeal:
