The third stage of the journey in Christ has to do with His followers becoming disciples. To review what I wrote last week: in the first stage of the journey believers profess their faith in Jesus Christ, but may not realize all that Christ calls us to do in their lives. During the second stage […]

Personally, I dislike the word obedience. It reminds me of my childhood and having to do everything exactly the way my parents or my teacher wanted. No wonder that as teen-agers we are so rebellious; we are almost old enough to decide what and how and when to do something or not—on our own! Obedience […]

  “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the […]

Pain and suffering are greatly misunderstood in this world.  It is part of our existence, in both the plant and animal kingdoms, that things can happen that maim or hurt or try us, that can cause us great suffering, illness and even death. We choose to see the pain as unnecessary, as totally preventable; so […]

This winter I have been struck by the beauty of the bare trees…by how we can now see behind them and through them…and especially by how their inner structure is now revealed. When trees are fully leafed, we only get rare glimpses of the branches or of what is behind a tree. In winter we […]

“Enter through the narrow gate.”   Jesus speaks in parables and metaphors and truth that is revealed to us as we live in him and dedicate our lives to him. He did not expect many to understand what he was saying. It’s only in the meditating on and living with a portion of his teaching, […]

The spiritual journey comes with many challenges and many joys. The first challenge is giving up my life to Christ and agreeing to let him lead me where he will. And then comes a long period of retraining/transformation of how I think, how I feel, how I think about myself, how I relate to other […]

  As we approach Lent this year, which starts on February 10th this year, it is on my mind that we should be giving up something substantial in our lives, something that has real meaning and could make a meaningful difference in your life. And I am not talking about chocolate! Unless we’re also giving […]

In every choice we make there is a cost to us and a benefit. If we stay where we are, we stay where we are comfortable, but we lose the freshness of something new in our lives. If we choose to move or change, we lose the comfort of the known. In every decision there […]

In living the Life of the Spirit we give up the need for control, the selfish desires that rule our lives, the right to call the shots, and much more. We live in the present, with what we are given now to do, with God calling the plays. You could call God the Great Coach. […]