Take No Thought For Tomorrow
This week I was praying and confessing my tendency to procrastinate and stressing about all the stuff I have to do in my life at church and at home and at work in the next few weeks. When the verse came to my mind where Jesus says, “take no thought for tomorrow.” Now, I didn’t take that as a free pass on my tendency to procrastinate, but I did take it as an encouragement not to stress out over what’s coming.
read moreLove Songs of the Sea [poetry]
The sea calls out, beckons, tempts those on the shore to come to it. Indeed the land itself is not immune to the allure of the sea. When writing this poem I tried to use sensual language to evoke an emotional response. These are the love songs of the sea.
read moreThe Second Mile
Have you ever been asked to help a friend out, or a friend of a friend who needs help moving, and as you pull up in the parking lot you get a text from your friend who says he can’t make it after all, but you go up anyway, even though you’re the only one that came to help, and they live on the third floor of an apartment building, and their couch transforms into a Hummer, and it takes three hours longer than you’d thought? That’s going the second mile.
read moreA Seal Upon Your Heart
The Song of Solomon is not always the most widely read books of the Bible. There aren’t too many sermon series about women caring for their vineyards and her lover like a young stag on the slopes of the mountains. But there are lessons in these few chapters about men and women and about God and his love toward us.
read moreJesus and The Leper
“Unclean! Unclean!” rang through the crowd. People looked around to see where the voice was calling from, so they could be sure to move away. Here comes the man, stricken with leprosy. A bubble of space surrounds him as he walks through the crowd toward Jesus. Because if someone unclean was touched the clean becomes unclean.
read moreThree Men, a King, and an Idol
It sounds like the start of a bad joke… “Three men, a king, and an idol walk into a bar…” But this is a story of faith, belief, trust, and loyalty in spite of overwhelming odds and uncertainty. We can learn a lot from this story.
read moreHello, Spring. Are You There?
All winter long I complain about the cold, and all summer long I’ll complain about the heat. But I always look forward to spring. Driving in to work today the weatherman said it’s officially the first day of spring. But then he said the temperature was 34 degrees. The first day of spring? I’ll believe it when I see it.
read moreHospitality is More than Food
It was great having friends over Sunday afternoon for a late lunch after church. My wife and I both enjoy showing the gift of hospitality. And hospitality of course means food. And it means opening up our home to our guests. In our disconnected world, even in the church, taking the time for that personal connection can mean so much. But is that the only way we can show hospitality?
read moreSpecial Delivery
In our post-modern society, day by day the odds increase that the people we come in contact with don’t regularly interact with Christians. There’s a very real possibility you and I might be the only real Christian someone comes in contact with today, or this week, or this month. That’s a huge responsibility. And it’s a huge opportunity.
read moreKnock Seek Ask
God wants to help us in our need and bless us in our desires. Jesus instructs us to Knock Seek and Ask, because God’s desire is to answer our prayers. He said, ” If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” Matthew 7:11.
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