The spiritual journey has been described classically in four stages: awakening, purgation, illumination and union. Awakening is the first movement in the journey into God’s world. It can be a direct answer to God’s call to be born again, to surrender your life to him. Or we can be thrown out of our normal life […]
At the end of the Deuteronomy, in Books 28, 29 and 30, just before the Israelites are to cross the River Jordan into the Promised Land, God is laying out for the Israelites how they are to live there. Deuteronomy 28 details the results of their choices in life: if they choose to follow God, […]
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, honor those who mistreat you.” That quote is from Luke 6. Matthew 5 puts it this way: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” And he goes […]
I belong to the whole church of Jesus Christ, the body of Christ, as Paul put it, in which every part of the body, every organ, vessel and nerve is an essential part of the whole. In fact the whole church of Jesus Christ cannot function if each part is not cooperating with every other […]
What is righteousness? And how do we become righteous? The word righteousness is translated throughout the New Testament from the Greek noun, dikaiosyne, which means both “the state of doing what is in agreement with God’s standards” and “the state of being in proper relationship with God.” To be righteous is to do both: […]
“Thy kingdom come!” Do we know what this proclamation means? What does the kingdom mean to us? Is it in some distant second coming? Or is it in the here and now? Jesus taught about the kingdom frequently. It seems to me that he came to teach us how to live, how to […]
Last week I wrote about breathing in and out, taking in the Spirit of God and then acting in the world out of that Spirit. To do that we must first become aware of what attitude we’re expressing in words and actions at home, at work, and wherever we go. Am I loving? Were those […]
The words, repentance and religion, have been turning over in my mind this week, since our Bible study, Bible Workbench, focused on a reading from Isaiah 1. He called the Israelites, and now us, to change our ways. What were they talking about? Repent means to deeply regret what we’ve done, but it does not […]
Like wood, it’s our imperfections, sanded, stained and polished, that are beautiful.