As I have pondered the Beatitudes[Matthew 5:3-12] and read diverse opinions about them, I remember most what I read about Jim Forest’s concept in The Ladder of the Beatitudes,” a step-by-step process which describes the journey with Christ. Each rung is dependent on us achieving the current step before we can continue. We can think […]

It seems to me that our goal in our Christian journey with Christ is to be converted from the world’s thinking to the way God thinks and to rest in his arms totally. We are so enmeshed in the world’s ways that we often don’t see that there is any difference, because we’ve been so […]

Jesus summed up all that the law and prophets had recorded in the Old Testament in the Two Great Commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.”[Luke 10:27] We don’t need the […]

The choice between God and the world We can see it in everyone we know: the lack of self-knowledge and self-love. It’s evident in second-guessing oneself in everything. In not expressing who we are in the world, in not using our own voice to express ourselves. It’s evident in having to perform and not being […]

Peace is the way, the method. Peace is the end. Without peace we have no trust. Without peace we have no love. Without peace, how can we say we love God? For Jesus brought us his peace, the peace that he lived, [John 14:27] that is beyond anything that the world offers. It is the […]

It is not the New Jerusalem. Or Zion. Or Canaan. The Land of Milk and Honey. The Promised Land. It is the kingdom of God as Jesus described it in many places in the New Testament. It is not a place, but a state of mind. We live in the kingdom of God when we […]

I think we focus on Jesus’ divinity so much, we fail to notice that his human side did trip him up occasionally. If we keep in mind these few instances when he acted out of his humanity, I think we will truly grasp why he is so available to us and so understanding of the […]

I love to read the pithy sayings on church signs around Charlotte. But I think the best one I have seen is at Grace UMC on Woodlawn Road that reads like this: “EGO stands for Edging God Out.” Our egos are the great challenge in the search for a deeper, truer relationship with God. We […]