It was a wonderful spring morning. The trees were dressing out after a winter of nakedness. The flowers were beginning to decorate the earth.
The Reality of the Living Christ
1 Corinthians 15:20-26 What difference does Christ’s resurrection make? Does it matter whether it really happened? Would people all over the world still believe Jesus’ teachings about life and faith if it didn’t? Would they still follow his example? Think about Jesus’ early followers in the aftermath of his death. They are disheartened to the […]
Formations 09.29.2019: Living in God’s Son
I began attending church as a baby, so I was encouraged from a very young age to invite Jesus into my heart. Well-meaning Sunday school teachers and preachers told me that if I did this, Jesus would become my Savior, living inside of me.
Connections 04.28.2019: Living in the Center
This Sunday we’ll study the final lesson in a unit entitled “Easter at the Center.” The unit title reflects two truths, one simple and one profound.
Formations 03.31.2019: A Living Sacrifice
The poet Donald Hall, in a documentary for The Atlantic, describes aging as “a ceremony of losses.”
Meditations on Luke: A Judas Living Inside Each of Us
In his memoir Telling Secrets, writer and preacher Frederick Buechner tells about his childhood after his father committed suicide. In addition to the trauma of losing his dad was the grief of being forbidden to speak of what happened.
Formations 02.04.2018: Living in Tensions
It’s not uncommon that I steal books from my grandfather’s coffee table. He goes ahead and tells me to take what I want, so it isn’t really stealing. Over the years, he has made sure to send me home with books that have been meaningful for him.
Connections 05.14.2017: Stones
The symbolism and wordplay in this text fascinate me. In verse 4’s simile, Jesus is “a living stone,” and in verse 5’s metaphor, Christians are “like living stones.” Now, you know and I know that stones can’t live. We also know that we’re in the realm of symbols here, and in a symbolic world, stones can live if that helps the writer make the desired point.
Connections 03.26.2017: Living in the Light
We usually think of light as a positive thing. When darkness falls at my house, I take comfort in the glow of soothing lamps. Both of my girls have small lights in their rooms that stay on overnight. If I’m driving on a dark rural road, I always feel better when I approach city lights once again.
Love as a Way of Living
Without question the word “love” sums up and depicts the essence of our Christian faith. Nonetheless, most Christians struggle in a world often filled with problems, difficulties, suffering, pain.