"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." (Luke 2:10)
‘All people’ is a tall order! From this end of history, we are quite confident that the angel’s proclamation about Jesus was going to come to pass. After all, there are billions of Christians in the world of every tribe, tongue, and nation. But it probably didn’t seem so certain at the time of the announcement. The full
Read MoreI love this time of year, celebrating Jesus’ birth at church and in our homes. There is something profoundly intimate and personal about Emmanuel. God deserves all the parties we throw in celebration of the birth of His Son. God is with us! That is why we sing “Joy to the World”. There is no better news than God has come to us and is for us!
Read MoreWe have a lot of expectations as we prepare for Christmas. The sights of Christmas lights, trees, mistletoe, poinsettias, and more. The sounds of sleigh bells and Christmas carols. The smells of the evergreen and favorite Christmas dishes. The taste of hot chocolate and peppermint. Temperatures below 32 degrees so we can at least hope for snow. I am from the North, so it doesn’t ‘feel like Christmas’ when I’m wearing
Read MoreThe Grinch hated Christmas and all the decorations, toys, feasting and singing. He thought that was all empty because he felt empty. He thought the relationships were shallow and self-serving; that greed was in the air with the Who wanting more and more.
The Grinch’s assessment was not far off from God’s at one point in history. God spoke through the prophet Amos because He hated the surface-deep worship and empty celebration that many of the Israelites engaged in.
Read MoreThe Psalmist captures the spirit of Thanksgiving in this simple verse: ‘The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand & satisfy the desires of every living thing.’(Ps.145:15-16)
This is a beautiful vision of all living creatures looking to God for sustenance. I picture baby birds in a nest cheeping and opening their mouths when the mother bird comes with food. They trust her vigilant care. Do you trust God’s daily provision – not so much with food, but the daily relationships at home and at work?
Read MoreDavid was a renaissance man. He was a warrior, a king, a musician, and a poet. He was clear minded. So, when he wrote a song praising God (Psalm 100), he enumerated reasons to do just that. David didn’t base his worship on feelings but on concrete grounds. In the middle of the reasons is “We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” He alludes to Psalm 23 which revolved around the metaphor of God being our shepherd. Remember, “The Lord is my shepherd…”? What does a shepherd concretely do for his sheep?
Read MoreLove is a word we use to describe our passion or commitment to someone or something. Love is a stirring of our souls that compels us to do what we do. Love motivates people to lay down their lives for the sake of another. In all these ways, love is essentially a strong emotion. The Bible, however, describes love as an act of volition, of choice. Scriptural love has less to do with early dating and much more to do with clear-eyed wedding vows. Jesus makes an appeal to this kind of love when he said, “Love the Lord with all your
Read MoreIt is hard to look at anything in our culture without seeing division. Sadly, groups are pitted against groups. There is a push to pit People of Color – PoC is the new buzz word - against Caucasians; male against female; left against right; ‘Gender Queer’ against ‘Cis Gender’; young against old; moral against immoral (doesn’t matter which side, you are one); ‘Oppressed against oppressors’; and ‘Good’ against ‘Evil’. Unfortunately, defining the division, the ‘us’ and ‘them’, is in the eye of the beholder. In the end, there is little to bring people together except to despise, mock, and hate the other side. Our echo
Read MoreLife is a struggle. There is no sugar coating it. It is baked into our relational experiences. Conflicts arise in way too many of our relationships. Even our best relationships demand forgiveness and reconciliation to get past issues no matter how small they are. But let’s focus on the big ones: bosses, peers, career advancement, marital
Read MoreJesus wants us to be real, not religious. At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us who is blessed. One of sayings is “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.” Jesus doesn’t want the religious in heart. He wants the pure in heart. The problem with the ‘religious’ of Jesus’ day, and ours as well, is that there
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