Being Christian Without Losing Your Mind
The angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayers have been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will give birth to your son and you must name him John.”…Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I be sure of this? My wife and I are very old.” – Luke 1:13, 18 There is a phenomenon in my …
“We are powerless against this mighty army that is about to attack us. We don’t know what to do, and so we are looking to you for help.” – 2 Chronicles 20:12 I feel powerless when I fantasize that things are getting better only to be repeatedly hit by the realization that they seem to …
We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. – 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (The Message) In a devotion in the Upper …
“How terrible it will be for you legal experts and Pharisees! Hypocrites! You give to God a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, but you forget about the more important matters of the Law: justice, peace, and faith.” – Matthew 23:23 If there’s such a thing as original sin, something we’re all guilty of by …
Nearby shepherds were living in the fields, guarding their sheep at night. – Luke 2:8 The message hidden in the Christmas story is this: In God’s kingdom, ordinary people are the real heroes. Shepherds see and hear a heavenly choir. Not the rabbis. A teenage girl gets visited by an angel. Not the princess in …
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in a pitch-dark land, light has dawned. – Isaiah 9:2 There was one part of my job as a pastor that particularly scared me. It was being with people in the darkest point in their lives, and feeling totally inadequate. What do …
Jesus said, “Remove the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said, “Lord, the smell will be awful! He’s been dead four days.” – John 11:39 Martha, the sister of her dead brother Lazarus, was saying what others were thinking. Jesus had commanded the stone in front of Lazarus’ tomb, in which the body had …
Dear friends, don’t believe every spirit. Test the spirits to see if they are from God because many false prophets have gone into the world. – 1 John 4:1 We can modernize what John says in the above warning. “Dear friends, for pity’s sake, DON’T RETWEET every tweet you get. Test them first to see …
About that time King Herod began to harass some who belonged to the church. He had James, John’s brother, killed with a sword. When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he arrested Peter as well. – Acts 12:1-3a Herod Antipas followed in his father’s, Herod the Great’s, footsteps. Mean, vengeful, neurotic, violent. He also played to the …
And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” – Matthew 20:11-12 (NRSV) These workers are angry because they’ve been working since dawn and the ones who were …