Over the last three weeks I’ve written about the three petitions in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer, “give us today our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Today I want to talk about the beginning and the […]

The third petition in the Lord’s Prayer, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one,” [Matt 6:13 NIV] asks God to keep us safe from harm, challenge, distraction and the devil. The first part of the petition in the NSRV reads: “And do not bring us to the time of trial.” […]

            I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few years thinking about the fruit of the Spirit, the qualities that are ours to express in this world when we truly follow Jesus. The first three: peace, joy and love are the essentials in the life of the Spirit. Peace takes us out of […]

  The second petition in the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:12, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,” has two main interpretations in our churches today: 1) as I just quoted and 2)” forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” There is another version of Jesus’ teaching in […]

  As often as we say the Lord’s Prayer, we repeat the line that says “Give us this day our daily bread.” Bread is a common reference in the Old and New Testaments from the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Exodus to Isaiah 30:20 “The Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water […]

We are born of God, in His image, into this world, into this country, where we are raised in its cultural standards and goals. Even if we are raised in the church, we are very much indoctrinated into the norms and standards of our culture through our parents, our friends, our schools. Here in the […]

Love and the Word leave a trail just like the flower petals of this crepe myrtle tree fall to earth. Hear what God says about how His word operates in the world: “my word goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the […]

I’m bored! is something I’ve come to acknowledge in this isolation period after four months. I do about 3 errands a week including two trips to the grocery store. The other might be a hair or doctor’s appointment or a trip to the pharmacy. I don’t go out to lunch with friends any more. I […]

If you ever wonder about the Indwelling Spirit of God and what He might be saying to you, the first thing to know is that His voice in our minds is usually the one we respond to this way, “Oh! No! I couldn’t do that!” as we dismiss what He whispers to us. So the […]

One of the gifts of the coronavirus has been to see clearly how my work and the circumstances of the day or week seem to complement each other. For the last eight years as I have written three books and kept up my blog along with a few clients in spiritual direction, I worked in […]