Easter’s Frayed Red Carpet by Elizabeth Moyer
Elizabeth Moyer
April 13, 2016
On the day when we had the least amount of time to tend to the needs of others, we boldly said come join us.
On the day when we had the least amount of time to tend to the needs of others, we boldly said come join us.
I suspect sometimes that I live more out of a sense of obligation than awe — more aware that I’ve signed onto a system than that I am a servant of a holy God who has actually sapped the power out of death and sin. I need to be reminded that systems are not living, breathing things, but Jesus is.
Evangelicals are often defined by what they are against instead of what they are for. I am a part of a sub-section of the larger Evangelical church that is more broadly called “Wesleyan.” This would include people like The Free Methodists, The Church of the Nazarene, The Salvation Army, more conservative United Methodists, and about a dozen other groups including my
Over the past few months, having been to the cross, visited the empty tomb, and celebrated the Resurrection, let us now live in awareness of the sin for which we will never be crucified.
Baseball has seen its ups and downs recently While the ownership groups seem to be having their largest years of fiscal success, the sport’s popularity is fading. To respond to the changing tide of culture, Major League Baseball has tried to address their need.
This Easter truth is as mind-boggling and subversive today as it has been in every age; because rather than looking forward to a day when the things that make us different from others disappear, the resurrection proclaims that we look forward to an eternity in which those differences remain, but no longer divide.
It is in God’s very nature to seek out relationship, and it is this divine seeking that provides the roots for evangelism and grounds all the directives that Jesus gives us.
Jesus told Zacchaeus to come down from the tree for dinner before Zacchaeus ever had the good idea to give half of what he had to the poor and give back any tax money he’d unfairly kept for himself. Jesus reached out to the Samaritan woman before she had all her questions answered, before she truly understood what the coming
Things are close at the beach. No matter how vast the ocean is, its waves come right up to lap at your toes. No matter how far the sand stretches, it still holds on to your footprints. No matter how loudly the wind roars in your ears, there’s a peace that surrounds you as you walk. No matter how hard
We’re so intent on keeping up appearances, so focused on making sure our outsides are presentable, that we miss out on the transformative power of the Spirit on our insides.
Romans 12:1-2: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve
“We have a whole new technological vocabulary. In this kind of technological world, and a world lost in moral and ethical relativism, language may be more important than ever. As Christians, and especially as those whose primary vocation is to communicate the Gospel, we need to pay attention to our ‘first language.’”
“When God feels distant and you’re losing your religion, something else is going on. He’s like the sun. When it gets dark, that’s because the earth turns, not because anything happened with the sun, and it’s the same with God. We lose our religion when we turn, not when he does, and when we turn, our hands get busy making
“When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not!” -Yoda, “The Empire Strikes Back” For followers of Jesus Christ, aging comes as a season of compelling and vital new purpose. Just what if there is extraordinary promise hidden in the age of doctors’ appointments, retirement, loss of loved ones and colleagues as well as physical challenges? What
“The grace of redemption can come upon us all at once like a crashing wave. It can reveal itself over a season of life similar to how the autumn leaves move from green to vivid orange, red, and yellow. It can even be relentless in how it floods our souls over and over again.”
“Now some Calvinists clearly understand the logic of their position, and do not shrink from this implication. Classic Calvinist theologian Arthur W. Pink wrote: ‘when we say God is sovereign in the exercise of His love, we mean that He loves whom He chooses. God does not love everybody.’”
I encountered Jesus on a trip to a mercy ministry in Bangalore. The people at this particular place were a mix of old, disabled, infirm and insane. But in some pairs of eyes, I could see what Mother Teresa talked about: Jesus in his most distressing disguise. I sat by a woman who was skin and bones. Half-naked and not fully
Each season has its ebb and flow, its ups and downs. Why is it, then, that we are still wrapping our minds around change management and leading change within local congregations? Think of change like you think of the seasons.
“Like divine sovereignty, predestination is not a Calvinist doctrine, it is a biblical doctrine. And indeed, as a theologian steeped in Scripture, Wesley not only affirmed the doctrine, he affirmed a very strong version of it…”
Prayer. It is as natural as breathing. Most of us, regardless of faith, will find ourselves praying instinctively at some point in our lives. Typically, the prayer that flows unbidden from our heart is a prayer formed in our soul that expresses our deep distress as a plea of boldness for help or guidance. Or the prayer might be one
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