6.5.23 Each human being grows up in a family and a culture that influences so much of who we become as we mature. That influence is largely unconscious, but it becomes the lens through which we see the world and make our choices. So, we follow those directives about our lives without really realizing […]
3.27.23 Slavery to the World We think of slavery as the chattel slavery experienced by the African slaves in our history. But, really, we are all enslaved to different degrees to what we absorbed from our culture as we were growing up, to what we absorbed of the teachings of our families, and to […]
3.13.23 The narrative is the story we’ve grown up with, the stories in our culture, the stories in our families, and our own take on what has happened to us. The narrative is what we look for to be affirmed in the world as we want our lives to be. We are wholly dependent […]
How am I, how are we, to know that we’re living in God’s kingdom, but not in this world? Here are some ways to recognize where we are spending our time. First, do you have a spiritual practice that you do daily for more than 30 minutes? Does it include any quiet time, […]
11.7.22 When God created this universe and our home planet Earth, He gave man dominion over it [Genesis 1:26-28]. That is the translation of both the KJV and RSV versions. The NIV and The Message give a slightly different slant: NIV translates it “may rule over” and the Message says “be responsible for.” God […]
As much as God rants and raves in the Old Testament about those who do not follow His will and His Commandments, Deuteronomy 28 makes clear that the punishment or blessing for our actions and words is fore-ordained in our own choices, not because God can’t wait for us to sin so that He can […]
The narrative is the story we’ve each grown up with, the stories in our culture, the stories in our families, and our own take on what has happened to us. The narrative is what we look to be affirmed in the world, in ourselves. We are wholly dependent on this, our version of the […]
As the country opens up after a year + of shutdown due to COVID-19, let us not forget the lessons that we have learned from this year of pandemic and just jump back into our lives as they were before it arrived in March 2020. Let us take a deep breath and remember what this […]
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 […]
It is such a simple idea: we human beings are all created in the image of God.[1] But it is the hardest thing we face as Christians—to let go of all our prejudices and cultural conditioning to see beyond the surface differences, to see Jesus in every person we meet. In Matthew 25, in the […]