Learning to love others the way Jesus loves us
Loyalty Read 3 John and Deuteronomy 7:6-10 Pray that the Lord will open your mind and heart to hear His voice. How do we stand with and for our brothers and sisters in the Lord? We step up. The concept of loyalty runs throughout the Bible, from the Hebrew אָמַן ( 'āman), meaning to be… Continue reading Beloved: Reflection 4
Now what? My goodness. Just when I begin to think the divisive politicking of the American public has reached the bottom, something happens on one extreme side or the other to show me more depths of depravity. Morally vacant candidates fight to see which commits the most egregious sins. Old men stuck in decades past… Continue reading Grace, politics, and Gen Z
Is God, by His silence, creating space for us to wrestle as Jacob did? Caught in-between. For some of us, it's a space between jobs or transitions between life stages, especially the years between active parenting and the empty nest. For others it may be changing locations or churches. There are times in everyone's life… Continue reading When God seems silent: Part two
John 21:15-18 You have to appreciate Peter. He's an all-or-nothing kind of guy who cannot hide his feelings or control what comes out of his mouth. He makes big claims and even bigger mistakes. And Jesus clearly loves that about him. In that love, Jesus also teaches, disciplines, and molds Peter into the apostle who… Continue reading Lessons from a charcoal fire
The God who worked wonders in the past is faithful to keep His promises still (Psalm 77:14; Psalm 86:15). To say we live in troubling times is an understatement. Every day some new catastrophe floods the news cycles: natural disasters, crime, social issues, education, politics, and uncertainty about the economy threaten our personal well-being and… Continue reading Faithful through the Ages
Sometimes God's answer to prayer is us. remix: Hanna-Barbera/Justice League Wonder Twins (CC BY-NC-SA) My brothers and I grew up in the 1970s. Saturday mornings were for cartoons of fantastical places and magical powers (and the occasional monster-puppet.) Typically, some distraught character would cry out for help and in the blink of an eye, a… Continue reading Activate!
How Noah responded to the grace of the Lord and what that means for us GRACE: charitos (χάριτος) Charis (Χάρις) appears more than 150 times in the Bible, mostly in the letters written by Paul. The first usage of the concept, however, is not for first-century Christians, but for pre-Abrahamic Noah (Genesis 6:8) when the… Continue reading Grace and Gopher wood
I can do all things through him who strengthens me. "I can do hard things" is the current cultural parallel to this verse and is the meaning many cultural Christians intend when they call on it as inspiration to achieve something. But Paul was not advocating that believers be like the "Little Train that Could," approaching… Continue reading Philippians 4:13
Defaulting to Grace is going to be a book! To celebrate, I've decided to share bonus content to subscribers only. You may already follow me through WordPress, but I invite you to subscribe (free), too. As a subscriber, you'll be first to know about the publication process and timeline along with some sneak peeks at… Continue reading Subscribe for bonus content
"Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near" (Hebrews 10:24-25). The COVID-19 pandemic added to a building cultural sense that regular church attendance… Continue reading Going missing
Defaulting to Grace 