From the category archives:

Faith

The Boundaries of God’s Grace: Toward a Larger Vision of Truth

In preparing to speak this Sunday on Luke 4:22-30, I’m struck by the ways Jesus (then and now) challenges our boundaries and blows open the scope of his grace.
The Quaker author and activist, Parker Palmer, writes in The Company of Strangers: Christians & the Renewal of America’s Public Life:
“At the heart of any authentic religious [...]

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An Open Letter to God, In the Wake of the Haiti Earthquake

Dear God,
I want to jump right in with the questions: Why? Where are you? How long?  But, first, let me say, “I trust you.”  At least, I want to.
In weeks like this last one, honestly, it’s harder to do.
This planet just doesn’t make sense sometimes.  I’ve gotten to see quite a few [...]

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Images from Haiti

You know how it goes by now – with our 24 hour “news” cycle, a tragedy like the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti January 12 hits the airwaves with sketchy details at first, then the truth begins to settle in, then the commentary runs ad nauseam.  And through it all, the pictures are shown, the video [...]

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Living In Sweetness

My ten year old son often pronounces his approval of life circumstances with a single word:  “Sweet!”
“Son, we’re having pizza for dinner.”
“Sweet!”
Son, you can stay up a little later tonight if you’d like.
“Sweet!”
To live in true “sweet”-ness, there’s a certain root that needs to be cut out of our lives.  Toward the end of the [...]

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Baptism and Symbolism

In the life of a church, baptisms are wonderful snap-shots of God’s grace!  They’re all unique, and yet they all share certain things in common.  Here are my “Top 3″ symbols of baptism:

Washing.  A new follower of Jesus understands that he or she is cleansed.  We believe that Jesus Christ died in our place on [...]

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Against Consumerism

I’ve been reading and researching for a series of messages I hope to give in November – they will be under the loose heading of, “Against Consumerism.”  I believe consumerism is the chief competitor for our allegiance in the culture of the U.S.  So, in the spirit of the early church thinkers and writers, who [...]

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Tithing and the New Testament Church

Some provocative words from Michael Spencer (aka, ‘Internet Monk’) at his blog this week:
Tithing to a local church … is a practice that I can’t see being scripturally required in any new covenant sense. I was taught my entire life that God commanded me to tithe to my local church. Awareness of the larger needs [...]

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Helen Prejean on the Threat of Jesus

Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, briefly discusses the threatening, revolutionary teachings of Jesus.

I love when she says:  If Jesus had been just a “dreamy preacher” and everyone was just sitting around campfires with guitars, that would have been no threat at all!

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