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God and Relationships
Our relationships with fellow humans really do deeply affect our relationship with God. One could even go so far as to say that if your relationships with humans are broken, so is your relationship with God.
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What A Sight
The talking animal was more along the lines of, “Yes, you (Balaam) said you heard me (God), but you need to understand how important it is that you actually listen to me!”
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Heart of God, Speak
Deuteronomy 18:15–20; Mark 1:21–28 Prophetic speech is not unique to the Judeo-Christian community, not by a long shot. In the current world, there are many forms of prophetic voice. A short list (i.e., not exhaustive) of prophetic voices: environmental collapse; sustainability (related, but not the same as environmental collapse); gender identification; minority redress (including, but
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Prophetic Testing
How’s this for a test? Does the person seek to make the “other” the enemy? Not their struggles, their opinion, even their sins…the person themselves.
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In All Things
Revelation 2:12–17 A conversation that I have had many times, and you may, too, is why are there so many denominations? Aren’t we all one? Don’t we all believe the same thing? There are some things that are common among Christian denominations: God “the Father”, Jesus Christ (God “the Son”), the Holy Spirit, the Trinity
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Promises of Grace
Psalm 111; Romans 9:6–18 Promises hold a significant place within the stories in the Scriptures. Much of this has to do with having to trust the fulfillment of a promise that people would not see. Abraham is one such example. He was given a short (one year) promise as a “down payment” for the long
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No Name
Proverbs 8:1–2; Mark 3:13–19 Many people have had nicknames growing up. Some of them were insulting. Some of them were just strange. Others were relating an individual to something else. Others were shortening of a proper name of the person. “Captain” was sometimes used in my childhood (thank you, Star Trek). Ian is pretty hard
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Trail Blaze
Psalm 46, Genesis 45:25–46:7 The King James Bible is arguably the single most significant book of the English language. Because of its centrality to the British Empire and the Church of England, the King James Bible had the unique placement to be the primary English language teaching and formation book for centuries, including all the
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Off To Where
There is no “magic” age or place when God calls you. If we learn anything from the Old Testament, God will call a person regardless of age.
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Abandon Ship
Jonah 3:1–5, 10; 1 Corinthians 7:29–31; Mark 1:14–20 Jonah may have been the most successful preacher in history. He preached and an entire city repented, and a large city, at that. The church celebrates 4000 in one day as a supreme act, yet cranky Jonah exceeded that by far. We often question and scorn Jonah