King Solomon on Twitter
Sunday we looked at the whole book of Ecclesiastes. It has lots of nuggets in the midst of about 35-40 uses of the word “meaningless.” [Insert heavy sigh] Several people were wondering about the King Solomon Twitter handle. Actually, I made up @Wisest_Guy_Ever and all the tweets. It was my way of summarizing the nuggets of truth/challenge/encouragement I found as I read Ecclesiastes. (I also had one person let me know that @Wisest_Guy_Ever is available in case anyone wants to start posting as King Solomon!) Today I thought I’d simply share these tweets as pictures…and...
Read MoreWorship Lived Out
Sunday we kicked of a 3-week focus on Justice. The next two weeks we will look at the very specific issues of slavery and sex-trafficking. This week, we took more of a “30,000 Feet View.” For those of you who weren’t there, we hung out in Isaiah 58. The essential question was: Are we going to simply “do” justice, or are we going to “be” justice people? If we are going to be the church God calls us to be, justice can’t be a once-a-year-for-the-month-of-January focus. It needs to be an every-day-and-all-the-time identity we live out. Are you in? By the way … the amazing news...
Read MoreWhy? … or Who?
On Sunday, we kicked off the new year by diving headlong into the happy-go-lucky Book of Job. (wink, wink) Bottom line: We all have unanswered “Why?” questions. We all struggle. We are all confused by God’s plan and God’s timing. We all want to know what He’s up to and why He does what He does. We turn to Job – a man who suffered mightily – and hope we’ll find answers to our “Why?” questions. But we don’t. God doesn’t answer the “Why?” questions of Job. (Even though has asks it 19 times!) He only answers the...
Read MoreThe Slave Is Our Brother – A Call To The Poor
O come, O come, Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel.That mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel, shall come to thee, O Israel. O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie! Above your deep and dreamless sleep,the silent stars go by. Yet in thy dark streets shineth, the everlasting Light, the hopes and fears of all the years, are met in thee tonight. Truly He taught us to love one another, his law is love and His gospel is peace. Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother, and in His name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of...
Read MoreThe Christmas Gift of Presence
But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves. These are the God-begotten, not blood-begotten, not flesh-begotten, not sex-begotten. The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish. John 1:12–14 The Message So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of...
Read MoreWe All Need Deliverance
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil . . . For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:2–3, 6 Everybody needs deliverance from something. Everybody. The world needs deliverance; we see it...
Read MoreA Conspiracy of Hope
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. Romans 4:18–21 Hoping against hope in hope that the God of hope would figure out a way to make...
Read MoreIs The World Spinning Out Of Control?
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? Matthew 6:25-27 Turn on the TV, pick up a newspaper or even your phone and it is easy to begin to think that the world seems to be spinning out of control. In the wake of recent world events,...
Read MoreIntentionally In Tune
For it came about that when Solomon was old, his heart was turned away to other gods by his wives; and his heart was no longer true to the Lord his God as the heart of his father David had been. 1 Kings 11:4 I sometimes think with all of our theological training and reading and thinking about what the Bible might be saying to us, that we make things way more complicated than God intended them to be. All the study and parsing is nice, good and helpful, but maybe the message of God is so much simpler. It goes something like this: If your focus is on God and not yourself you will be fine; but,...
Read MoreSomething New — will you see it?
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:18–19 If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. 2 Corinthians 5:17–19 Sometimes I hear someone say something like “Christians are New Testament...
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