Elijah: Faith That Acts by Kim Reisman
Kim Reisman
August 7, 2017
To follow Jesus up close, rather than at a distance, we must base our lives on the reality of faith rather than the reality of fear.
To follow Jesus up close, rather than at a distance, we must base our lives on the reality of faith rather than the reality of fear.
It’s not a time to micromanage, but it is a time to glance at the big picture and identify potential trouble spots and retrain the growth to expand in the direction you’re aiming for.
The book is called ”The Book of Everyday Prayer,” and it’s for everyone who, like me, needs more than what comes off the top of their head.
If we are to hear the voice of God, and thus have an understanding of what it means to follow Jesus in real time, we must surround ourselves with the language and voice of God.
As we rehearse our vision of faith over and over, keeping it ever before us, it strengthens and sustains us, remaining intact as a source of strength during times of crisis and resistance.
Recovery is characterized by relapse. I wish someone had told me this a long time ago, before I lost patience with people who desperately need my patience. Relapse is what happens when people give up a powerfully magnetic addiction only to find themselves at some point giving into the temptation to try it again. It happens. Relapse doesn’t mean a
God offers Elijah, and us, three specific spiritual resources: visioning, speaking, and acting.
There is so much that we can learn about God, our life, our calling, by looking at the life of Jesus Christ. He can teach us how to love, how to be faithful, how to be holy, how to see to live out the good news of God’s love each day. And today we see something very significant, and very important to Jesus’ life and his
“Move ON!” a little girl voice shouted from the porch. She’d been watching me weed then went inside. During that time, I’d moved down the flowerbed but doubled back, pulling stray weeds I’d missed the first time in the tangle of morning glory vines. When she came out, she saw me bending at roughly the same spot as when she’d
Through all this, Bono remains rock ‘n’ roll’s most effective spiritual provocateur. He sees every stage as a pulpit and every coliseum as a cathedral.
“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.”
“How is memory significant for us as God’s people? Why is it important for us to remember, and what specifically should we remember most?”
“We are what we think. We are transformed by the renewal of our minds. So study is a necessary discipline for spiritual growth.”
Revelation. Not of the contents of a carefully wrapped box in your childhood home, hidden from view until enterprising siblings helped you spy out the contents (or were you one of the professional tape-peelers who could lift a flap of wrapping paper without leaving a trace?). Not of a painful holiday discovery, realizing your daughter has an eating disorder or
“In Advent we are waiting for the return of Jesus the Christ, the coming King. In Advent, we anticipate the return of Christ. Advent is about the future, the end, the “Christ shall come again in final victory” part of our faith. And so in Advent, we practice waiting. We remind ourselves that Jesus is coming back and that we
Simon and Garfunkel quipped that “the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls and whispered in the sound of silence.” At the beginning of the song, they sang, “hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again.” Advent meets us in the darkness, in the silence. So do the prophets.
“There I was, the new pastor of a church that had a strong, proud heritage but more recently had experienced several decades of slow decline while nobly carrying on, a congregation like so many others these days. I was trying to envision through hope-filled eyes the potential for renewal and growth in that setting, but as I stepped into the
Advent. For some, it’s a countdown to Christmas. For others, it marks the beginning of the Christian calendar year. For most Christians, it is a season of preparation: not just to celebrate the birth of Jesus but to renew our hearts that we might see Christ in the here and now as well as in hope and expectation of his
10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1… HAPPY NEW YEAR! “A little premature, man…” When the holiday season rolls around, emphasis is placed on the Big Three: Advent, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. What would happen if we started celebrating the Big Two—Advent and Christmas—instead of the Big Three? Christians may forget that Advent marks the beginning of the Christian calender year. It entails celebrating two
“I told you this so that my joy might be in you, so that your joy might be full.” – John 15:11 I love the image of a smiling Jesus. It always inspires me to wonder about the things Jesus might have smiled at. Children, certainly. I have a sense that no child in a marketplace ever escaped his smile.
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