The Mystery of Glory. We worship you for your holiness, we give you thanks for your goodness, we praise you for your glory! Glory: the weighty splendor of God’s personal presence. The bottom line is that the weight of God’s presence outweighs the world; His presence is more substantive and heavier than the universe. As …
A Whimsical Dictionary of Surprising Influences. Z is for Zacchaeus – The main character in a brief story in Luke 19. He was a rich embezzler with good climbing skills. Zacchaeus was a tax collector for the Roman IRS, a Jewish man with no conscience who got wealthy by collaborating with the hated Roman occupiers. …
A Whimsical Dictionary of Surprising Influences. Y is for Yahweh – “So Moses said to God, ‘Indeed, when I go to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I tell them?’ Then God said to …
“Let us be paracletes to each other.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11) Remember that a paraclete is called/invited to come alongside someone in order to help and bear burdens, through advising, reminding, advocating, comforting, listening, exhorting, teaching and encouraging, with the ultimate purpose of pointing to God and glorifying Him. The following scriptures help unpack what us little paracletes …
“…There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24b) The Holy Spirit is that Person of Love mutually and eternally shared by the Father and the Son, revealing a God of Three-in-One. In the gospel of John, the Lord Jesus names their Spirit “Paraclete.” which means “called to come alongside of.” Depending …
“In terms of the world’s sanity, Jesus was crazy as a coot, and anybody who thinks he can follow Him without being a little crazy too is laboring less under a cross than under a delusion.” (Frederick Buechner) When I was a teenager thick in the middle of the 60’s Jesus Movement, I liked wearing a …
“Are you serious?” Jesus demanded. His closest followers, the ones who knew him best, were ambling along on the dusty road to Capernaum. Kicking up a different kind of dust, they were arguing about who was going to be the most famous, the biggest superstar, the one first on his block with golden sandals. Jesus …
Judging our Neighbors. “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. For the measure you use, it will be measured out to you.” (Luke 6:35-38). Let’s say a driver seems to …
(14.) Receiving the Children. What did Jesus mean when, after taking up a child into his arms, he said that whoever welcomes, whoever receives, one of these little children in his name in fact welcomes him? (Mark 9:36-37). It would take a lifetime to plumb the depths of his statement, but it’s almost as if …
Jesus Christ, Y’shua Messiah… the wild card in the pack, the court juggler of grace and truth. He was easy to describe, and impossible to understand. Some of his names were Rose of Sharon, Lion of Judah, Lamb of God, Morning Star, Stone of Stumbling, Root of David, Lilly of the Valley, Great Shepherd, Suffering …
(15.) Embracing the Characters “The more I considered Christianity, the more I found out that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild. He who has the faith has the fun!” (G. K. Chesterton) Every educator knows about the …
The Gift of Weakness: A Self-Examination. Our working definition of weakness is, A lack of strength due to: sickness; a handicap; an ongoing difficulty; a distressing hardship; insulting opposition; a glaring vulnerability; a limitation that puts one at a disadvantage; the bearing of the difficult burdens of others. Personal questions to consider as you think …