We are awaiting the birth of the Christ child; it’s Advent season, the beginning of the church year, the celebration of Christmas. It’s a beautiful season of buying and giving gifts, but the meaning of Jesus’s birth gets lost often in the commercialism and materialism of how we celebrate it. Let’s take more than a […]

In our history, we enslaved African men and women, but today we are all in captivity because of this blot on our history.  I’m not enslaved, you say, but I would disagree.  Look at what the aftermath of this sinful part of our history leaves us with: our guilt and shame at what our country […]

“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. […]

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; […]

Do you every think about the main trajectory of your life? It’s a process not unlike connecting the dots, making sense of all that has happened in our lives and where that has influenced the next and next things that have challenged us and what we have given back to life. I often think about […]

The choice is ours: to be a believer, a follower or a disciple of Jesus. Each one is a big step into the full life that Christ offers us. To be a believer is to accept the teachings of the Bible, to embrace the life Jesus lived on this earth, to join with others in […]

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 […]

Recently, my church has begun to raise money to house the homeless in a to-be-renovated building on our property here in Charlotte. At one recent meeting there was a question raised about whether we could be true to this purpose. I was reminded of a commitment I made to God about my blog seven years […]

The church of Jesus Christ is not a building. It is not a denomination. It is not a sect. It is a fellowship of all his followers in union with Christ, living in the mind of Christ. Whatever differences there might be among us, they are as nothing when compared to being a part of […]

And here we are, on the eve of Christ’s birth in this world, of his coming again to us, of his gifts of peace, joy, love and patience, of love and forgiveness. Tonight we will celebrate His birth in the manger, welcoming the new baby into this world. And we will welcome Him into our […]