Winning and losing with grace is the key to being the kind of person that people want to be around, whether you are playing a game, working on a project or simply enjoying a cup of coffee. Learning to be gracious resides at the heart of the Christian life. Graciousness begins with Read More...
The life of Jesus was centered in prayer. At almost every important event in the Gospel of Luke we find Jesus praying. He prays at his baptism and when he is choosing the disciples. We find Jesus praying before he teaches and he prays before Peter’s confession. He proclaims that the temple Read More...
A few years ago I woke early after a sleepless night. I was worried about a serious decision. Feeling the need to rejuvenate my spirit, I grabbed a U2 CD on my way out the door and plugged it into my car’s sound system. I pushed the random button on the player Read More...
Learning to live with our scars is one of the toughest things we will ever face. It’s hard to do because they remind us of our pain. The reminder can be a point of grace, though, when we allow it to clarify what matters. Maya Angelou once said for her, writing is Read More...
Fred Craddock, the finest preacher in America, died last Friday in Blue Ridge, Georgia. “Fred Craddock was a national treasure and a devoted servant of the church and Jesus Christ. His impact on preaching – in terms both of scholarship and practice – is incalculable,” said Tom Long, his friend and colleague Read More...
If you had faith (and you do), you would be able to take on the world in all its beauty and ugliness. Even if you are awash in doubt, even if you are barely hanging on to a thread of faith and it feels like you are about to fall into a Read More...
Paul, writing to the church in Rome declares, “hope does not disappoint.” It is a beautiful witness from one who has been through the worst that life dishes out. Beaten, mocked, imprisoned and worse, it’s almost impossible to imagine that Paul after all of that could write about hope. Yet there it Read More...
Marcus Borg, a popular, though at times controversial, Jesus scholar died last week after a long illness. I was caught off guard by the grief I experienced when I heard the announcement of his death. I shook his hand once at an event where he was the main speaker but beyond that Read More...
Jesus is very clear in Mark 3: “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven their sins.” That is an amazing statement but too often we in the church have added comments to that word of forgiveness. Too often we have said, “Well, yes, forgiveness is a gift for everyone and Read More...
On Christmas Day, my wife, Julie, and I went to see “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.” Near the end of the film, Thorin, the King of the Dwarves, says to Bilbo, “If more people valued home above gold, this world would be a merry place.” He has been terribly Read More...
Ministers and church musicians do not always get excited about Advent and Christmas. Once in a while even the cheeriest, most optimistic pastors look at the work of this winter holiday and think, “Here we go again.” This malady may actually begin when women and men are studying for the ministry in Read More...
The season of Advent is a time of preparation. We shop for gifts, we plan and attend parties, we add an extra worship service or two and maybe a concert or pageant to our regular routines. All of this is done to get us ready for the arrival of the Christmas celebration.However, Read More...
Paul Nixon, in his book, I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church, argues that the churches in America today are dying because we have become too comfortable. He picks on pastors mostly. He says that preachers too often avoid challenging themselves. These shepherds of the church no longer have the desire necessary to Read More...
“Faith is a journey without maps.”1 It is something many desire to have and to hold yet it is elusive, difficult to pin down. Finding our way to faith is sometimes hard to do. I wish that wasn’t true. I’d like it to be easier but on the other hand maybe Read More...
Moving beyond guilt is a primary key to a healthy life. Guilt is not a bad thing when it leads you to examine mistakes and failures. It can be a bridge from sin and failure to a new way of living but if we refuse to cross and instead sit in our Read More...
