thoughts on my faith and my life. your mileage will most certainly vary.
Jesus said to Peter — “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.” —Matthew 17:27 NIV . “[T]oo […]
My summer Bible study is a quick one, four weeks. We’re covering (the Book of) Ruth, which is tidy since Ruth has four brief chapters: yay, Nancy (our facilitator)! If you haven’t read Ruth for yourself, pick it up and have a seat. It won’t take you long, and there’s always more going on within […]
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and […]
“I’m not sure I could agree to feed myself to the lions.” “I think, though, if we choose to die to self little by little by little, we can approach the kind of love Christ models.” We have been reading the Gospel of John. Today’s lesson included Peter’s denial/betrayal, pointedly contrasting this scene with an […]
These examples make it clear that the guidelines for living that Jesus gave, that is, his ethics, were grounded in his apocalyptic worldview. They are probably misunderstood, therefore, when they are taken as principles for a healthy society. […]The motivation for ethical behavior, then, sprang from the imminent arrival of the Kingdom, to be brought […]
My graded midterm arrived in my inbox this morning. Now that it’s safely squared away/ according to the internal logic of publication rights <g>, I’m going to share it with you here. It’s a little longer than most of my posts… but not by much. Again, you have heard that it was said to the […]
Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. —Genesis 32:29 But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask […]
Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus. In him, this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God’s Yes and our Yes together, gloriously evident. God affirms us, making us a sure thing in Christ, putting his Yes within us. By his Spirit he has stamped us with his […]
20131027: I can see better in the clouded light today — the color shades don’t wash out in the blaze (do our shades wash out in the blaze of God’s glory?) One of the collateral effects (benefits? drawbacks?) of living in Central Texas is that sunlight here is generally strong. The sky is brilliant blue, the sun’s […]
I was shining a brooch I bought for myself in college. It’s a round pin, except that it’s a sinuous entwining of vine-leaves and a single salamander. At first glance, it’s a complete experience of entanglement, and only later do you notice the salamander’s presence, at one with and different from the vines. I fell […]
