Tag: light
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Happiness and Joy…or Not
Psalm 44; Isaiah 22:8b–14; James 4:4–10 🔎 Focus Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? James 4:4 NRSVue …you did not look at the One who did it, nor did you see the One who planned it… Isaiah 22:11 NRSVue We don’t like pain or suffering. We often do…
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Reconciling Fruit
Psalm 144; Isaiah 27:1–6; 2 Corinthians 5:17–21 (ISV) In times to come, Jacob will take root, and Israel will blossom, sprout shoots, and fill the whole world with fruit. Isaiah 27:6 ISV All of this comes from God, who has reconciled us to himself through the Messiah and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 2 Corinthians…
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Perspective and Significance
Psalm 144; Ezekiel 19:10–14; 1 Peter 2:4–10 (ISV) In the fictional universe housing the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (written by Douglas Adams), there is a machine called the Total Perspective Vortex. Originally built (per the fictional universe) to provide beings a comparison of themselves to the infinity of creation, it became a torture device…
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Movie About a Christian
Read: Luke 9:18–50 One of the reasons I love and appreciate the concept of the “church year” is that we are often confronted by the hard passages, especially those that often make no sense to our post-enlightenment (i.e., science- and data-driven) minds. This is, as you probably inferred, one of those days. Today is Transfiguration…
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How to Come Back
1 Corinthians 11:17–33 It’s almost over it seems. The time of being masked and constrained nears its end. On the other hand, already another strain of COVID is showing up, but the reality is that we, as an entire world, are at our limits. It seems great that we’re almost there, except that we really…
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A Movement: Of Priest and Temple
…if we…focus too much on the outside, the temple comes crumbling down, for the internal structure cannot hold up the facade shown to the world, and we then dishonor God by our fallen temple.
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Veiling Mystery
Psalm 111; Isaiah 25:6–10a; Mark 6:35–44 The veil has long existed as a physical reminder of mystery. The truly veiled bride becomes a mystery (again) as she walks down the aisle toward an anxious and waiting groom. Modern weddings have pretty much eschewed the bridal veil. The bride may have a nominal veil, but it…
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Laying The Bread Down
Psalm 145:10–18; 2 Kings 4:42–44; Ephesians 3:14–21; John 6:1–21 It is tempting to throw the baby out with the bathwater. We can look at society and even many churches (in particular, their leaders), and just give up. There is such a struggle against the darkness and against sin, that it can be overwhelming. At the…