Optimists are those dismayed when God permits circumstances that are not rose garden-ish. Pessimists are those dismayed when He permits circumstances that are. And yet in his great and lengthy sermon,…

2 Brothers Grim

March 13, 2022
As Jesus was confronted with the many tragic evidences of mankind’s brokenness, he chose parables to illustrate the contrast between Israel’s ways and heaven’s. Each telling had within it an…

Sustaining Peace

February 27, 2022
Our world is being dealt yet another blunt reminder of the grim reality of our fallenness – man’s inhumanity to man – which has continually replayed its depravity ever since…

To Pray is Human

February 20, 2022
One of the many revolutionary aspects of the message of Jesus was the immediacy of friendship with God. Until Jesus’ arrival, the thought of being in a one-to-one relationship with…

More Boot Camp Than Day Spa

February 13, 2022
There is no bait-and-switch in Jesus’ presentation of what life would be like for those who followed him. He bluntly told his disciples they would be hated and rejected and…
Given the vast and gaping ‘in-Adam’ limitations of our fallenness, it wouldn’t be surprising that our response to God’s ways would be something like, “You’ve got to be kidding!” From…
The disciples had no vocabulary for their experience of this thing: Grace. Nothing in their upbringing had prepared them for the shock of having their lives Grace-gifted. And with such…

Heirs, apparently

January 23, 2022
One startling new reality for the disciples-become-apostles was the abundance of the gift of grace which continually energized, motivated, filled, blessed, sweetened, their day in day out lives. The writers…