Insofar as this pandemic can help us kick bad habits and establish new and healthier lifestyle rhythms, we are experiencing what I want to call a “holy disruption.” … More Quarantine Letters: Holy Disruption
Sitting around that table the hidden face of God suddenly becomes visible. The stranger becomes a dear friend. The empty hole in our heart is suddenly filled. The darkness is vanquished by piercing light. Hope is resurrected to dance a jig on the corpse of Despair. At that table the lump in our throat is replaced by an irresistible burning in our heart. … More Faces Downcast to Eyes Opened
This piece by Shauna goes along with my Easter message this past Sunday. Thanks for sharing this, Keri. -JB Holy Saturday. We live next to the Chapel of the Good Shepherd. We walk by it dozens of times a day, and those doors are always, always open—no matter how early I’m leaving for a flight, … More Holy Saturday (Shauna Niequist)
This Thursday we will gather in our home for our first HouseChurch gathering of the spring. We will share a meal, fellowship, hear the apostles’ teachings, celebrate the eucharist and pray for Thy Kingdom to come on earth as it is in Heaven. The shades will be up and our doors will be unlocked and … More Locked Doors, Deflated Hearts
Driving through the Colorado mountains in our minivan last month, our family got a great kick out of holding our breath as we drove through the tunnels that drill their way through the mountain. After a suspenseful moment of darkness, the light would appear up ahead, and a few seconds later we would be laughing … More The Journey Through Easter Mountain
“I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the one Nietzsche ridiculed as “God on the Cross.” In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples and stood … More He Suffered For Us (by John Stott)
Why did Peter refuse to let Jesus wash his feet? One possibility is that Peter was embarrassed for Jesus. He didn’t want to see his rabbi, his master, take such a humiliating role. Maybe he was trying to protect Jesus from his own undignified behavior. That is one possibility, but I don’t think it’s the … More Jesus’ Humiliation & Ours (Skye Jethani)
Jesus asked, “Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has … More Can You Drink the Cup?
In this sermon series, we’re exploring how the Cross was not just the way Jesus died, but also the new pattern for how Jesus’ followers are supposed to live. We’re called to not only embrace the CrossEvent, but also learn to walk the CrossRoad. The season of Lent begins with Jesus being tempted by Satan … More CrossRoad 4: Temptations
Last time I opened up a bit about the journey I took to have my thinking reshaped by the cross. Jesus slowly chipped away at some long held convictions and values I had been brought up with. The largest pill to swallow was learning to let Jesus’ strange commands have more sway than the common … More CrossRoad 2: Did the Disciples get it?
I took a chance and did something new this Easter with my sermon. I wanted our church to hear what I think an Easter sermon and gospel message would have sounded like in the first century church. So, we heard an Easter sermon from the Apostle Paul as I preached (or dramatically read) the first … More Paul’s Easter Sermon from Prison
Q: How can a modern person believe a man was raised from the dead? I’ll let Hank Hanegraaff answer this one in his article “The F-E-A-T that Demonstrates the FACT of Resurrection” Because of its centrality to Christianity, those who take the sacred name of Christ upon their lips must be prepared to defend the … More Q&A: Did Jesus Really Rise Again?
The Story of Easter can be told as a story of Three Gardens. Eden was The Garden of Futility — of broken dreams, shattered relationships, the first Adam’s rebellion, and the image of God marred by sin and disobedience. The Garden of Gethsemane was The Garden Decision — of sacrifice, abandonment and suffering, of … More The Garden of New Creation
What is the strongest part of his argument? What is the strongest point against his case?
Let us draw near to the cross on this Good Friday, keep vigil, contemplate the Lord’s passion, consider his agony of spirit and physical torture. Let us not fall asleep as the three did in Gethsemane, nor abandon him as the rest did by the end. When we ponder his last moments, just before the … More My God, My God (Psalm 22)
“Now it was the custom at the Festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.”Do you want me to release to you … More Which Jesus do you choose?
What if the fig tree Jesus cursed could tell his side of the story? This is an imaginative retelling of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem to shouts of “Hosanna!” during his last week, and how his fate was strangely intertwined with the fate of that old tree. … More Tale of the Cursed Fig Tree
Now that I’ve been writing at Daily Illumination for over a decade, its nice to have entire collections of writings for various seasons of the church year. If you’re looking for some inspiration this Holy Week, please consider my Lent/Easter collection of nearly 30 posts here. If you come across anything inspiring, or you want to … More Holy Week Collection
When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.” They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, “Surely not I, Lord?” Jesus replied, “The one who has dipped his hand … More Judas in the Mirror (Matt 26:20-28)
I tend to be a bit forgetful at times. I’ll walk upstairs to get something but forget what it was when I arrive. I’m still in my 30s but I swear my short-term memory is fading! The obvious solution for this affliction is to write things down, make lists, or plug it into my iPhone calendar. … More The Palms of His Hands
“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession…Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” -DIETRICH BONHOEFFER The creed of contemporary Christianity offers “A God without wrath [who] … More QUOTABLES: The Cross in Our Culture
A Christmas gift to myself this year was a collection of Sunday Sermons from the ancient Church Fathers. They are arranged according to the Church Calendar with about 5 or 6 sermons each Sunday for that week’s Gospel text from the likes of Chrysostom, Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine. This first Sunday in Lent I read … More Ancient Sermon on 40 Days of Lent
I’ve been studying the raising of Lazarus recently. I love how a closer examination of a very familiar passage can reveal new spiritual truths. Here are a few little insights I’ve gleaned. First, this story is full of deep emotions and coated with tears, grief, loss and longing. Just think of the last funeral visitation you … More Move the Stone, Come Out & Be Unwrapped
“Make no mistake: if He rose at all it was as His body; if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle, the church will fall…. Let us not mock God with metaphor, Analogy, sidestepping transcendence; Making of the even a parable, a sign painted in the faded credulity of … More Seven Stanzas at Easter (J. Updike)
Instead of giving up something for Lent this year, how about taking up a 28-Day Spiritual fitness challenge? Two amazing MainStreet friends — Jaimie Hanly and Melissa Noreen — created a wonderful tool for growing in one’s prayer life and relationship with God. It’s a great idea for this Lenten season. In invite you to check this out, and join … More 28-Day Spiritual Fitness Challenge
Kingdom Harbor 