Politicians have interests from which Christians may be joyously free. Our faith family is not contained by state lines or party lines, by skin color or culture, by language or ethnicity.
We are free to love each other. And we are free to love others.
What a gift.
Chances are, you or someone you know gave or received a coloring book for adults in the last year. With titles as catchy as “Color Me Stress Free” or “The Art of Relaxation,” the coloring craze has swept the nation. Whether the book contains images of floral gardens, mandalas or other graphic patterns, the idea behind coloring therapy is to
“Jesus has a body but the Father and Spirit do not. Discuss.” One of my acquaintances posted this on social networking recently, provoking a number of responses. One person wondered if Christ had always had physical form. The discussion spun and doubled back, spiraled and swung. And, as it happens, it matters. Frequently theology – especially Trinitarian theology – is
Yet another acquaintance lost his life to depression over the holidays. Such loss leaves everyone devastated on multiple levels. When devastations like suicide drop into our lives, we’re left with far more questions than answers, not to mention the guilt and so often, such a sense of powerlessness. Stretching to make sense of a tragic event, we tend to grab
God’s preferred method of interacting with us is to use particular people at particular times, usually to deliver a particular message.
Every month, on the day the gate opens, the Methodist Church is present – on both sides of the wall. There is conversation. There is prayer.
And there is Holy Communion.
We had a funny moment here in our house the other night. My oldest was filling out a form to take the ACT in the coming weeks. She’s only in the 7th grade, but I like that they start taking it early. She was filling out the form and she called me into the living room. When I got there, she
I doubt there is a more used and less understood word in the contemporary church than “missional.” Missional is not about being better at being Kodak in a digital photograph world.
And everything that is hurt, everything
That seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,
Maimed, ugly, irreparably damaged
Is in Him transformed.
The question remains. Do we really know the High God? How would our lives change if we really understood the fact that the God made real in Jesus Christ – the God of the world – loves each tribe and nation equally? How would that understanding change how we looked at other tribes and clans – even in our own
We live in a world where people need to meet Jesus. I guess that’s always been the case. There’s never been a time, in human history, where people have not needed that relationship with God. God created us for relationship with him. Everything in our life flows from that relationship. Here’s the thing. Once we have entered into relationship with
A few days ago I visited a mercy ministry in another town as part of our preparation and planning for building a capacity-building ministry in our community. Talking with the director of the ministry I visited, I was reminded again of just how many beautiful souls there are in the world. I keep running into people who care deeply about
Creation is never an extra in Christian faith; it is foundational. All else moves outward from there.
“The writer who contends we lost our soul when we adopted the mission statement inisists that, “love God, love neighbor” would be a better mission statement from a “Wesleyan” perspective. Would you not think that love for our neighbor compels us to share Christ with them, that doing justice and loving mercy is for the transformation of the world and
“As Christians, we have a great deal to say about the meaning of suffering.”
Understanding turns sadness into joy.
Since I can remember, I’ve had a pastor’s heart. Often times when I hear someone talk badly about the Church, I get offended in the way a sibling gets offended when someone is talking about her sister—“Hey, don’t talk about my sister like that!” I ache to see the Church live into the fullness of holiness in which she has
Let your eyes wander to places you’ve never heard of, or cities you can’t pronounce. Ask God to be at work in those places. When you’ve prayed around the world, turn the globe so you can see your home region. Picture a map being zoomed in around your house or flat, and pray for God to be at work in
Before social media and the prevalence of pop culture, it was a lot easier to enforce whatever ideologies you wanted your child to follow. But as globalization increased, this changed. Young people became increasingly exposed to the rest of the world. Today, their ideologies and values no longer find a basis in what their priest or imam preaches but in
Don’t ask God to guide your footsteps if you’re not willing to move your feet.
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