Reconnecting

Well, it’s been a while. Tendinitis in my elbows has required me to lay off my typing as much as possible. I’ve been learning some new voice recognition software that should relieve the stress on my arms. Sharon and I were also on vacation this past week. We are grateful for the time to read, [...]

Essential 100 Challenge: Day 76 — Acts 9:1-31

Talk about a roller coaster ride. Poor Paul had quite a time of it, didn’t he?
On Sunday, I said that our faith rests on both truths and facts, and that biblical truths are based on biblical facts. The core of Paul’s theology and spirituality was based on the facts of what happened that day on the road [...]

Essential 100 Challenge: Day 75 — Acts 10:1-11:18

Peter is about to experience another conversion, his world turned upside down. To this point, Peter believed that the Jewish people and the Jewish nation were the focus of God’s attention. When Jesus had told the apostles to be his witnesses throughout the world, they assumed he meant the Jews throughout the world.

Essential 100 Challenge: Day 70 — Acts 1:1-11

“But….”
I hate to admit it, but I’m pretty sure that would have been my last word t0 Jesus as he was ascending into the sky. “But…you didn’t answer our question. You can’t go yet, we don’t know enough!”

Essential 100 Challenge: Day 69 — John 20:1-21:25

I will  be reflecting more on this passage next Sunday. Today I would like to focus on what our reading says about our life in the Trinity.
Jesus said to Mary, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am [...]

Essential 100 Challenge: Day 68 — John 19:1-42

So who won? When Jesus said those final words, “It is finished,” it was pretty clear that the devil had won, Rome had won, the Jewish leaders had won. Clearly Jesus hadn’t won. Clearly Jesus was finished.
But Jesus didn’t say, “I’m finished;” he said, “It is finished.” In other words, he had accomplished what he came [...]

Essential 100 Challenge: Day 64 — Mark 5:1-20

Oh, the tormented lives some people lead. The “demoniac” in today’s reading is tormented by enough demons to send a herd of 2000 pigs over a cliff into the lake. On the other hand, there is the person who said to me recently, “I really don’t have any problems.” Our experience of life is so [...]

Essential 100 Challenge: Day 63 — John 9:1-41

“Do you believe in the Son of Man?” This question that Jesus poses to the formerly blind man strips Christianity down to its bare essentials. The words “son of man” are basically a non-title. Jesus doesn’t ask the man if he believes Jesus is the Messiah or the Son of God. Jesus doesn’t ask him if he [...]

Essential 100 Challenge: Day 62 — Matthew 14:22-36

Peter was used to being with Jesus. Life wasn’t the same when they were apart. Peter’s journey so far involved two stages, two stories really. There was life before Christ, and there was life after Christ. Even now there were two ways to experience life — with Christ and without him.