Being Christian Without Losing Your Mind
And then there’s the sea, wide and deep, with its countless creatures—living things both small and large. – Psalm 104:25 We’re a culture celebrating big. Skyscrapers, mountains, galaxies. It’s important to note that without the small, there is no big. For example, each of us is made up of 50 trillion cells. Each of those cells …
Jesus said to someone else, “Follow me.” He replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead. But you go and spread the news of God’s kingdom.” – Luke 9:59-60 On the farm we grew corn. I hated growing corn. It was hot work harvesting …
Then Moses said to himself, Let me check out this amazing sight and find out why the bush isn’t burning up. – Exodus 3:3 The tale of Moses and the burning bush is a great description of the faith journey. INCIDENT HAPPENED: Weird, burning-bush thing. Something out of the ordinary caught his attention. A bush …
Then turning to the woman, but speaking to Simon, he said, “Do you see this woman?” – Luke 7:44 (The Message) We get no better x-ray of Jesus’ heart than this scene. A prostitute kneels before him. She cries profusely and, having used money from her profession, bought oil and anoints his feet, a sign …
As they approached the village gate, they met a funeral procession—a woman’s only son was being carried out for burial. And the mother was a widow. When Jesus saw her, his heart broke. He said to her, “Don’t cry.” – Luke 7:12-13 The story of Jesus restoring life to a widow’s son doesn’t fit your …
Throughout the pandemic, I was an ardent pro-masker. I wore a mask everywhere. I thought it was a way of protecting others from the virus. I had also hoped it would prevent me from infection, but it didn’t. Still, I wore it religiously. With others, I celebrated in the spring when those masks could be …
A man with a skin disease approached Jesus, fell to his knees, and begged, “If you want, you can make me clean.” Incensed, Jesus reached out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do want to. Be clean.” — Mark 1:40-41 A man with leprosy asks Jesus to heal him, and Jesus is “incensed”? This seems out …
Lord, you have done so many things! You made them all so wisely! The earth is full of your creations! – Psalm 104:24 One morning when she was five, our daughter Emma went to my study and asked what I was doing. “I’m working on a sermon, trying to hear what Jesus would want me …
“The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: Take these documents—this sealed deed of purchase along with the unsealed one—and put them into a clay container so they will last a long time.” – Jeremiah 32:16 There was one rule of investing that you should follow: If I buy a stock, don’t buy it. Too …
Actually, the problem is with the words, not the values. It arises when you use a phrase, understanding what you mean by it, but the reader or listener takes it another way. A conservative newspaper columnist recently wrote of her apprehension that liberals were pushing the LGBTQ agenda. She feared they were attacking the “biblical …