Giving It up for Lent
Growing up we really never talked about this thing called “Lent.” I heard about it, mainly from Catholic kids at school who had to eat fish on Fridays and came to school with these ash smudges on their foreheads. Giving up something for Lent is a common practice in some churches, but it wasn’t in mine.
read moreWhy Do Christians Fast?
The spiritual practice of giving up something for a specific time or purpose is called fasting. Fasting is something Christians do to focus on prayer and contemplation.
read moreTake an Umbrella, But Go
Sometimes we wait too long to start. We wait for the perfect moment, for the rain to stop, for the stars to align, for everything to be perfect. But sometimes we need to just go. Take an umbrella, but go.
read moreActions, Not Words, Reveal the Heart
Jesus is not about flowery words. He’s about the status of one’s heart. He’s about the actions of our lives that spring from our hearts.
read moreLove Covers
Jesus didn’t need to say to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.” They already had been. Her great love was the evidence of the great forgiveness she’d already received.
read moreDoes God Have a Plan for my Life?
Sometimes people equate, “God has a plan for your life,” with, “everything that happens in your life is according to God’s plan.” I think that’s a mistake.
read moreHow Does God Answer Prayer?
As Christians we all believe that God hears us when we pray, but we may not all agree on how he answers.
read moreLike a Man Who Went on a Long Journey
Jesus tells the parable of a man on a long journey. He leaves the management of his vineyards to others who begin to think it all belongs to them… But he is delaying his judgment, because he wants us to repent. To me that’s good news.
read moreThe Kingdom of Heaven is Like
In the Gospel of Matthew we repeatedly hear Jesus introduce his parables with the phrase, the Kingdom of Heaven is like. And in each parable of the kingdom something big comes from something small. I get the feeling it’s something Jesus wants us to understand.
read moreThe Parable of the Ungrateful Servant
When we recognize the magnitude of what we have been forgiven, it naturally generates a spirit of gratitude, thankfulness, generosity, and love, as Jesus shows us in the parable of the ungrateful servant.
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