This lectionary reflection on 2 Kings 2:1-15 emphasizes our need for spiritual mentors and role models, like Elijah and Elisha. The text illustrates three key lessons: disciples keeping their eyes fixed on their mentors, mentors leading mentees to important lessons and places, and mentors empowering mentees to overcome obstacles and stay on the Narrow Way. … More Spiritual Orphans and the Gift of a Mentor
Imagine returning home from a night out when traffic suddenly halts. Your eyes are drawn upward to a magic door descending from the heavens, suspended over the city. The mayor and fire department scratch their heads as crowds slowly gather. Soon the entire city is gathered around that mysterious door. It’s cracked a bit, and strange light is piercing the cool evening air. … More Magic Doors & Open Houses
In this week’s lectionary text, 1 Corinthians 9, the Apostle Paul emphasizes his holy obligation and divine calling to proclaim the gospel, representing a countercultural surrender to a higher purpose. I share some of my own experience and challenges of my call to full-time ministry, and conclude by highlighting the current crisis of clergy burnout and offering a call to love and support those who have surrendered their life to full time Christian service. … More The Company of the Summoned
“Isaak, grab a notepad and pen, and go watch Trump’s victory speech. Tally up how many mean things he says about someone else.” Isaak loves counting, and he’s very sensitive to bullying, so he relished the assignment. He caught only the last 10 minutes of the speech, but the photo here shows the result. … More 32 Put Downs in 10 Minutes
This week’s lectionary features a verse I memorized in Greek in college. Paul warns of the danger of knowledge leading to arrogance and division, urging the coupling of knowledge with love. What does it profit a man to gain worlds of knowledge, if he ends up an insufferable jerk? … More All Puffed Up with No Place to Go
Jesus’ powerful and authoritative encounter with a man possessed by an unclean spirit highlights the contrast between genuine spiritual engagement and complacency. This week’s Gospel text challenges Christians to question their commitment to Jesus and be open to his disruptive influence, aiming to stir them from spiritual apathy to vibrant faith. … More An Unclean Spirit and the Un-Spirited Clean
Paul’s strange and even disturbing instructions to believers in Corinth beg explanation. For Paul, every molecule in the universe had been shifted by the Christ Event, and the imminent return of Jesus placed a question mark next to all ordinary things of life. Pastor Paul’s words likely jolted his first hearers awake and raised many questions–questions we do well to ponder again today. … More The End is Nigh (Sort Of)
The ‘gospel’ many have been taught has drifted from Jesus’ original message. Weighed down by a hyper-individualism, we’ve bought a neat little salvation package whereby sinners bow their heads, pray a prayer, pull the grace lever and a bookkeeping angel with big-rimmed glasses moves your name from the Damned column to the Saved column in Heaven’s database. … More The Time is Fulfilled! Change Your Thinkin’!
Whose company do you prefer? A person who keeps their opinions to themselves and has you constantly walking on eggshells, never knowing what they think or where you stand with them? Or a person who can be blunt and brash at times, but who speaks their mind in every situation? … More Guileless Faith
The Jewish Messianic hope was often contaminated by a nationalist fervor that had God’s people thinking the Messiah was coming to take the country back for God from the unbelieving Gentiles in power, and bring swift judgment on the less zealous and insufficiently patriotic religious compromisers. … More When God’s Glory Appeared & Wept
We just finished up a 3-part Advent Series exploring Jesus as the perfect embodiment of Micah 6:8 spirituality that invites us to “do justice, love mercy, and walk in humility.” In between Sundays, I’m on college campuses trying to light a fire in college students to embrace and cultivate this kind of Christianity in the world today. … More Doing Justice to Christmas
Why was the creation of the universe described in 9 verses in Genesis, whereas the building of the tabernacle is detailed in hundreds of verses over many chapters Exodus? Moses was working with a fractious bunch divided into twelve tribes, and one of the best ways to unite a people is by joining them together in a common project. … More Shut Up & Build Up: Healing Our Divisions
In John 12, Jesus is telling us that life is to be found in the dying and losing process, not on the other side of it or by avoiding it. If you want to bear much fruit spiritually, then you may first need to be broken open, split in two, pressed into hard soil, plowed over by persecution, humbled by the spade that throws loose dirt over the false, airbrushed version of your life. … More Cow Manure and Spiritual Growth
If God is the true Sculptor and we are the clay, then we need to sit still on God’s workbench more often so he can do his job. Imagine old Geppetto trying to put the finishing touches on his masterpiece Pinocchio if he were already a living boy, jumping up and down and running around the room. That’s much of American Christian spirituality. We’re working too hard for God to work on us. We’re moving too fast for God to move in us. … More Sit Still, Pinocchio!
Peter stands naked in the boat, both for practical fishing purposes and to symbolize a man laid completely bare before God-in-Christ. Instead of hiding his shameful nakedness, he wraps himself in a garment of grace, plunges himself into the waters of forgiveness, and swims into the arms of his loving friend. … More Laid Bare, Yet Lavishly Loved
Today I read MLK’s Letter from a Birmingham jail alongside the letters to the seven churches of Revelation. John and Patmos, and King in a jail cell–what great prophetic company! … More MLK and the Seven Churches in Revelation
The Prince of Peace himself wants to hold classes in every church across the globe this New Year “that He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths” (Isaiah 2:3). What are the key topics of his seminar? The psalmist gives us the curriculum. Jesus wants to teach his people that in Him “unfailing love and truth have met together” (v. 10a). … More Justice & Peace Have Kissed! (Psalm 85)
Join us Sundays at 5pm as we open the Gospel of John and heed Jesus’ invitation to COME, SEEK, SEE and ABIDE like never before. … More Come, Seek, See & Abide
God’s angels congregate in the “empty places” bringing comfort to people with empty emotional tanks and empty hopes. But they also redirect our attention away from what’s empty to focus instead on what’s now being filled! … More Angels in Empty Places (Easter ’22)
Let’s imagine ourselves into the story and join this strange cast of characters sitting around Jesus’ table. Which of these characters do you relate to most? … More A Table for Misfits and Ragamuffins
In the fullness of time God came again to His people. No longer cloaked in a terrifying tornado, this time His presence dwelled in a teething toddler. His radiant glory, instead of flashes of lightning across the eastern sky, now shone from the eyes of a humble baby in a manger. … More Christmas on Mt. Mystic 5: The Cloud
I don’t know about you, but it sends a shiver down my spine to think that there was a strange moment on a mysterious mountain long ago and far far away where three heroes of history huddled up to discuss my deliverance! … More A Holy Huddle and a Game Winning Play
In today’s Mount Mystic Meditation, I want you to reflect on what it feel like to be “chosen” for something special. Can you think of a time you were selected for some special role, or reward, or experience, or trip? Likewise, how does it feel to be overlooked and watch others get chosen ahead of you? … More He Chose Them, And Us Too!
I wonder if we share Nicodemus’s wonder and curiosity about Jesus and the kingdom he’s bringing. Are we consumed with questions about what God is up to in Jesus? Given a private meeting with Jesus, what questions would we ask him? … More The Chosen 7: Face to Face with Jesus
We think the kingdom comes by taking responsibility, putting in the blood, sweat and tears, grabbing life (and faith) by the horns. This is life, faith, and ministry under the heavy yoke. This is the pathway to burnout, bitterness, and disillusionment with God and religion. This is doing God’s work without God’s presence and power. … More I Am Nicodemus
Kingdom Harbor 