Month: May 2020
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Falling Down
Numbers 11:24–30; Joel 2:27–29; Acts 2:1–21 (read online ⧉) Just in case you didn’t know, today is Pentecost. Some call it the “true” birth of the Church for the Holy Spirit fell upon the people of God, and has not left us yet. It is also called Whitsunday, of which part that is white (for…
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Opprobrium
Matthew 9:18–26; Mark 5:21–43; Luke 8:40–56 (read online ⧉) People often use scripture to justify certain things, or at least state that whatever “this” is, it is nothing new. One of those is a thought that the woman in today’s Scriptures had been bleeding due to a botched abortion. This, of course, is conjecture. There…
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Responsible
Exodus 34:1–7; Numbers 14:26–38; Jeremiah 31:27–34 (read online ⧉) For those of us whose American individuality is almost hardwired into us, it seems inconceivable that God would punish us for other’s sins, especially for those who sinned before we were born. In fact, in many respects, we struggle with the result of anyone else’s sins…
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Not Them Anymore
Matthew 15:17–28; Ephesians 4:17–24 (read online ⧉) For I am the LORD, who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God, so you must be holy because I am holy. —Leviticus 11:45 When the Israelites were brought out of the land of Egypt, it wasn’t going to be things as usual.…
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Clean Up
Zechariah 3:1–10; Matthew 9:1–8; Revelation 22:7–17 Most parents have to tell their children to clean their rooms. There are those rare exceptional (weird) children who clean up their rooms on their own. There are also those parents who have conditioned their children to behave in a manner contrary to their nature, and the children are…
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Planned Disruption
1 Samuel 16:1–5; Luke 14:28–33; James 4:13–17 (read online ⧉) But mouse-friend, you are not alone in proving foresight may be vain:the best-laid schemes of Mice and Men go oft awry,and leave us only grief and pain, for promised joy! Still, friend, you’re blessed compared with me! Only present dangers make you flee:But, ouch!, behind…
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Holy Grounding
Exodus 3:2–6; Exodus 20:22–26; 2 Chronicles 3:1–2 (read online ⧉) The concept of “holy ground” has a long-standing history. In popular imagination, church buildings and their lands are—by their very nature—holy ground. Whether it was vampires (or other unholy creatures) or Immortals (e.g., Connor MacLeod) or something else, the concept was powerful. While popular imagination…
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Foot Care
John 17:1–11; Ephesians 1:17–23 (read online ⧉) I thought how ironic it was that I’d dismissed dog meat as a cultural idiosyncrasy in Vietnam; that “who I am to judge?” extended to Islamic laws in Uzbekistan and Buddhist temple restrictions in Cambodia, but not to Republicans, hunters or gun owners. I’d shaken my head at…
