Being Christian Without Losing Your Mind
The angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Mary. God is honoring you. Look! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. –Luke 1:30-31 If I were God, I would have arranged things differently. First, no angel during Mary and Joseph’s engagement. That way they could have had the traditional, multi-day, …
But even beyond that, I consider everything a loss in comparison with the superior value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have lost everything for him, but what I lost I think of as sewer trash, so that I might gain Christ. –Philippians 3:8 Paul was graphic at times, a reflection of his uncensored …
Luke 5:1-11 This is what Peter said to Jesus out of sheer terror. The fisherman had been instructed by Jesus to do something counter-intuitive. He told Peter to fish a certain way and Peter, the experienced fisherman, knew 100% that it wouldn’t work. But it did, and that’s where the problem lay. Jesus, then and …
The Word became flesh and made his home among us. We have seen his glory, glory like that of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. — John 1:14 The stereotype of Christians is that they don’t like to have fun and, when they do, it makes them nervous. Perhaps that’s because the …
Very early in the morning on the first day of the week, the women went to the tomb, bringing the fragrant spices they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away. –Luke 24:1-2 I was honored to know a college student, Jill, who had lived all her life fighting cystic fibrosis. One Thanksgiving, though, her struggle …
Job 42:9-17 Job’s sufferings end when God appears in a whirlwind and has a heart-to-soul conversation with him. What’s VERY interesting, though, is what happens afterwards. In the above verses, three things leap off the page. Job prays for his friends. His friends haven’t exactly been friendly to him. They’ve held to the fantasy, “You’re …
Job 23:1-9; Job 23:16-17 Job is an amazingly contemporary book. The words of an anonymous Hebrew writer living in a confusing, painful time give voice to our spirits today. Lingering with the passages above, you can find three things to remember when you are facing a grueling situation that may appear utterly hopeless. Be honest. …
Ephesians 3:1-7 The world continues spinning because of competition. You have winners and losers. The winners reap the harvest of success, while the losers look at the celebration from the visitors’ dugout. Before his conversion, the apostle Paul had lived his life in relentless competition. He wanted to prove how his way of living, being …
Acts 8:9-25 Superstitions are irrationally ground into the human psyche. Something bad once happened when you walked under a ladder. So, to determine your fate, don’t walk under ladders. Magic is the next step up. It’s the illusion that you can control things in a mystical way. Simon the Great was a magician who gave …
2 Corinthians 5:16-20 This disclaimer, tagged at the end of an investment opportunity, usually means that just because something good happened in the past, it doesn’t guarantee it will happen in the future. But there’s another way to look at it. As a college student, I was once caught in an horrific ice storm/blizzard. Wind-driven …