Duplicity disguised as simplicity – simple devotion, believed, but fundamentally empty. Imagine with me that there is this person who seems very devoted to you. I mean, this person does all the right things almost all the time. Hey, this person is nice to have around. But what if you find out that this person… Read More ›

Have you ever stubbed your toe and then got angry at whatever you stubbed your toe on? Sure you have. I may or may not have even kicked a chair for daring to leap out in front of my innocent toe. Which didn’t help my toe feel better at all. It may or may not… Read More ›

What do you think about visions? Do you get a picture of a fake spiritualist, complete with colorful flowing robes and jangling bangles, predicting the future or communing with the dead? Or maybe it is a very realistic dream all full of terrible meaning. Some of the rabbis taught that Moses was given a vision… Read More ›

Some things shift and change while others remain rock solid. Situations change and with that shifting comes a demand for a different response. If I try to respond to my adult children the same way I did when they were children, the result would be disastrous. I don’t get to make decisions for them, although… Read More ›

Hey! God bless you! Are you wondering if someone sneezed? Sometimes, in our culture, maybe in every culture, a “God bless you” is thrown out there with no conviction of God actually blessing anyone. It’s just what you say when someone sneezes, or when you are trying to get those crazy Christians to vote for… Read More ›

From the beginning of Luke’s gospel and throughout, we have see the Holy Spirit filling and guiding. Gabriel tells Zacharias that his son will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. We see evidence of this when Mary comes to visit Elizabeth and baby John does some leaping in the womb. The… Read More ›

The Greco-Roman world believed strongly in dualism. They divided the spirit and the flesh into two separate things. And then they reasoned that all matter was tainted. So, the ultimate good would to become a bodiless spirit floating off to the spirit realm. Free from this filthy flesh at last. Much of our thoughts about… Read More ›

Why do funerals and weddings conclude with meals? Why not have a service and call it good; send people home to get on with their busy lives? I’m not suggesting that it is wrong to not have a reception, but isn’t there something about the meal that seems to wrap it all up? When we… Read More ›

Do you know Jesus? Have you ever had a “coming to Jesus” moment? What does that even mean? For some, knowing Jesus is a grasping at an ideal. Well, there is some truth here. But some do a whole lot of grasping without any opening of the Bible. Some even delve into secondary sources to… Read More ›

In the Roman Empire a woman’s testimony was not legally valid. Male chauvinist much. This is so much more than giving a wife a pass on testifying against her husband. Nothing was legally validated through the witness of women. If you want to believe your wife that a tsunami is rushing toward the house, well,… Read More ›