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  4/20/2021 - 1 Corinthians 15:22 [NIV] For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. As others have observed, death is the ultimate statistic: one out of every one person dies. I have attended and officiated at many funerals, an especially important duty but never my favorite. As a Salvation Army officer, I was often called upon to do funerals of those in my community who were unchurched. Often those who attended were ill at ease with a religious service, and cold or resentful of the Gospel truths about death. Hollow assurances at funerals provide no real comfort, and the gospel is little comfort to those who have made up their minds to avoid God. It was especially difficult when the loved one had committed suicide. Religion tends to parse out harsh rules from the commandment “do not kill”. I don’t believe that. The judgment faced by humans is whether to come into the light and receive the mercy of God through the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins, or not (John 3:...

  April 17, 2021  Mark 4:35-41 [NIV]  [Shared on Facebook] He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. The way three Gospels tell this story, Jesus was sleeping…on a soggy pillow in the stern of the little boat.  I finally understand a missing piece of this story: The one who created the universe was an exhausted rabbi who had been frantically shaken awake by disciples convinced they were about to drown in a raging storm.   Jesus was more than a little grouchy when he addressed the wind and the waves.  I confess I have been misled by artists picturing the event showing a heroic figure in a commanding pose bravely facing the storm.  Jesus was completely human.  And completely God.  Yes, he had the power to shut down all attempts by the enemy to end his life including his crucifixion.  But he didn’t.  He walked the narrow line between absolute power and...

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.   4/9/2021 1 John 1:8 [NIV] Prelest. I just discovered a new word today, looked it up and got excited. It is a Greek Orthodox word that beautifully describes a dangerous spiritual condition caused by self-delusion. In my own shaky words, getting dazzled by my own goodness. I know how it feels and grieve that I’ve experienced it. But at the same time, I’m gratified that the Holy Spirit is working in me to see it clearly in all its ugly charms. It is driven by both pride and fear and results in isolation and rejection of truth and true godliness. I can also see how it has become an epidemic in our world driving all the insane conversations on twitter and the twisted news that is blowing our country up. We do indeed have problems that need to get solved, but the prelest virus is making us destroy ourselves in the process! I thank God that I am at the same time seeing Christians working through ...

Still they stood there in disbelief, filled with joy and wonder. Then he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” Luke 24:41 NLT I can’t help but get a picture in my mind of Satan, desperately whispering to the hearts of the disciples in that upper room ‘…who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?’. In one flash of a moment, their world got turned right-side up again. All the unseen rulers of this world had been rejoicing saying to themselves and their human minions ‘We won!’. Nope. If ever there was a picture of grief suddenly turned to joy, it is this scene in the Upper Room. The heart knows what the mind is wired to rationally reject. Joy and wonder. It is hilarious that in that stunning moment of unreality, the first words out of Jesus’ mouth were ‘got anything to eat?’. How casually he flipped them back to reality. The world insists its own ‘truths’ are reality, and should have always been that way, and we are supposed to just get in line. Nope. But… but… we’...

  - Good Friday. Put an ‘L’ sign over your head. Loser. That was what the followers of Jesus felt when they couldn’t meet the eyes of the religious authorities who finally got the troublemaker Jesus out of their way. Gloating, satisfaction, a feeling of justification for their sickening self-righteousness. - Rather than feeling smug about “…But Sunday’s Commin’!”, we should take a moment to really put ourselves in the place of those who struggled with the reality they had left everything to follow a now shamed and permanently cancelled ‘loser’. - Those who sat on the fence about Jesus, enjoying the show while it lasted, began rewriting their personal narratives about him with assurances they were smart to not get too involved in such a radical proposition that went against every truth of the social reality around them. The crucified Jesus had told his followers they would never fit in. - It is time to look at the half-measures of our own commitment to the proposition that Heaven ...

When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God. Then David was angry because the Lord’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah. [2 Samuel 6:6-7 NIV] - There are stories in the Bible that trouble us. God, as the Shekinah Glory, still inhabited the Ark of the Covenant that had been fashioned at the foot of Mt Sinai by Moses to be the focus of God’s presence with his people. After more than 400 years, it had lain neglected in a small Judean town after having been captured by enemies who were forced by God’s Glory within it to return it to Israel. Soon after becoming King and capturing Jerusalem, David tried to bring it to Israel’s new capital where he and Israel could resume their proper worship of God Among Them. The death o...

  3/21/2021 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. 1 Peter 2:1-3 [NIV] - Who is in charge? Humans have always been and always will be at war. Every human relationship is subject to the issues of power and control: marriage, family, career, society… even the individual can struggle with internal destructive conflicts. - When we enter into a battle of wills through deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander, and other kinds of power plays, we become trapped by our own hands. The truth is, no one is ever really in control. It is the illusion that makes fallen angels a spiritual impossibility with no way to return. Hell is Love’s only solution for those who cannot impose their wills on the Kingdom of Heaven and who will not submit to the will of God, who is love, peace, joy, and every s...