The world would keep us apart, in competition with each other or in denying another the same rights as we have. But God’s reconciling love would bring us together. The world would have us judge others by race or economic or educational achievements or immigrant status(and other surface criterion). But when we look to Jesus […]
“The Lord is my shepherd…”[1] The 23rd Psalm describes the nature of a loving relationship with God. It defines what trust is. It speaks of the faith we have in our Creator God who leads us, refreshes us, guides us, comforts us, treats us well in the presence of our enemies, and anoints us. […]
November 4, 2019 It is so hard for us Americans to give up control of our lives and what happens to us. We are supposed to in charge of what happens to us, determinative of the direction of our lives. So we resent anything that happens to us that was not in our plans. Even […]
Love your neighbor as yourself is the second of Jesus’ Two Great Commandments.[1] And it is the proof that we love God with all of ourselves. If we can love our neighbors, then we are following and fulfilling all the laws in the Old Testament and Jesus’ comprehensive two commandments which include all the laws […]
Our attention today is liable to go in many different directions at once. Fear is omnipresent as the backdrop of our lives which we can ignore or we can face. One way to face it is to practice being present to God. To be present means to pull all the different components of who we […]
Recently, I wrote about Father Gregory Boyle and his two books’[1] impact on my life. This week I want to write about his talk from August of this year in Charlotte. Father Gregory’s point in all that he said was this: to judge is the opposite of kinship. Judgment separates, differentiates us from others, even […]
There are three passages in the Old Testament that speak of being still, silent, quiet before God. The first one occurs as the Pharoaoh changed his mind about pursuing the Hebrews; Moses in Exodus 14:14 said, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” He means that the Lord will take […]
Jesus spoke so often of those who could hear and see and those who couldn’t. I count 24 verses in the four Gospels echoing this theme. I am not so sure that we take to heart what He said. We think that we know what He means; we’ve heard the truth preached from the pulpit; […]
In August of this year I heard Father Gregory Boyle speak in Charlotte about his work with gang members in East Los Angeles. For 35 years he has invited young men and women out of gangs into Homeboy and Homegirl Industries. He has written two books about his work, Tattoos on the Heart […]
1st Principle: Quieting Your Mind So That You Can Hear the Voice of the Indwelling Spirit of God “Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46 10 “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.” Psalm 37:7 “Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the […]