Category: Wesleyan Accent
Maxie Dunnam ~ Confession
January 7, 2015
Beginning at the point of our believing that it is God’s desire to forgive, confession becomes not a morbid discipline, not a dark groveling in the mud and mire of life, not a fearful response to a wrathful, angry God who is out to get us if we don’t shape up. Rather, confession becomes an act of anticipation, a response to the unconditional call of God’s love…
Michael Smith ~ The Scent of a New Year
January 5, 2015
New is unknown, and often we are afraid of the “what if” questions in our lives. But new is happening every day.
Carolyn Moore ~ Go Tell It on the Mountain
January 3, 2015
The rules are not the relationship under this new covenant. But deeper, much deeper, is the revelation that all people matter to God.
Michelle Bauer ~ The Promise of Silence
January 1, 2015
When we refuse to be silent we are saying that we have nothing left to learn or that God has nothing left to say to us.
Maxie Dunnam ~ Leave Your Stuff Behind
December 31, 2014
By the time most of us get to be adults, we have accumulated a great deal of stuff. We’ve learned so many wrong things, stored up so much misinformation, learned to respond in so many destructive ways, adopted all the biting, snarling, snippy styles of relating, become secretive and cynical. We carry a lot of stuff around, and it burdens us down. We get all glued up in our limited world of habit. So this word of Pharaoh to Joseph’s brothers is a good word for us, particularly as we begin this new year: leave your stuff behind.
Carrie Carter ~ When You Feel Like You’re Drowning
December 29, 2014
Have you ever had a near-drowning experience?
I have. I’d guess I was between the ages of seven and nine. I don’t remember the circumstances, except that I was in over my head. Literally. What I can remember is the feeling of not being able to breathe and the panic that completely took over any ability for reasoning. I mean, everyone was told (way back in my childhood days) that once you go under for the third time, you die…
Elizabeth Glass Turner ~ Receiving Christmas
December 24, 2014
Jesus’ Incarnation was not initiated by humans: that is one of the most important implications of the Virgin Birth. Jesus came, unexpected, uninvited, uncreated. Receive Christ, then, this season, as you do in Holy Communion. You can put up a tree: you cannot create Christmas. You can get a great deal on The Toy for your kid: you cannot create Christmas. We receive Christmas…
Elizabeth Glass Turner ~ Holy Focus: Distraction
December 22, 2014
In the middle of life – car repairs and cancelled trips, cancer test results and job changes, crises and half-finished projects – what is truly urgent, and what is only a red herring? Holy focus slowly grows out of maneuvering from one situation to a next, feeling out the tempo of the Holy Spirit and recognizing the holy even when a child is vomiting on the floor, someone is screeching their brakes before rear-ending you, and your daughter is beginning a conversation with, “um, Mom?…can I talk to you about something?”
Mark Trotter ~ Get Up and Go
December 20, 2014
“Do it even if you don’t feel like it, even if you don’t believe, or can’t imagine, that the promise that is offered can come to you. Get up and follow it anyway, because you are a person of faith, and you believe that what is real is not only the way you feel now, but the promise offered to you in Jesus Christ. Arise, and shine.”
Scott Pattison ~ The Gift of Time
December 17, 2014
“Regardless of how I have spent, squandered, or invested my time, I still have the wonderful gift of this set of 24 hours. Regardless of how I spent “yesterday,” I still have today. I can waste today, by regretting yesterday, or yearning for tomorrow. I can spend the day selfishly on myself, or investing in others.”