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
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’!
Christmas 2019 Christianity Today published a scorching editorial decrying Trump’s immoral character. The Christianity Today website “crashed” from all the traffic swarming to read it. I wondered why so many were caught up in Caesar’s politics the week our focus should be on the new politics born in Bethlehem’s manger. … More Trump, Evangelicalism, and the Kingdom
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
The week between Christmas and New Year’s gets many in the counting mood. Counting how many gifts we need to return. Counting how little money is left in the checking account. Counting how many cookie calories we’ve consumed. Counting how many pounds we need to shed when we hit the gym in the New Year. But it turns out that what we choose to count may tell you a lot about what we value. … More Counting on Christmas
Whenever violence erupts in the Holy Land, I find myself huddled next to Jesus weeping again over a land that has yet to learn His Way of Peace. As we pray for peace in Israel, and watch events unfold there, let me share a piece by N. T. Wright on how Christian pilgrims might approach the complex history and relationships in the Holy Land. … More Weeping & War in the Holy Land
Let everyone around us fawn at the big-budget political mayhem swirling continuously around us. Let us keep our focus on the little pop-out window on the screen of history that bows humbly before the manger and stands in awe with lowly shepherds. Let worldly politics be a little side hobby (though I don’t recommend it!), and let King Jesus and his upside-down politics rule in our hearts and minds continuously. … More Split Screen Lives
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
This past week three college students of mine met up at Gale Woods Farm to go on a nature walk together. Not just any nature walk; a Jesus Walk aimed at letting the sights and sounds of nature amplify some core teachings of Jesus. The vision for “Jesus Walks” was hatched last spring in Australia while sipping chai tea on sabbatical. … More Jesus Walks and Kingdom Talks
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
“Anyone who listens to my teaching and puts it into practice is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.” Matthew 7:24 Dallas Willard wrote relentlessly urging Christians to place real, rugged apprenticeship to Jesus back at the center of Christian faith and the church’s task. The problem, Willard says, is that “The … More Jesus As LifeCoach
The problem wasn’t simply that the mob displayed Christian symbols, but that they saw no contradiction between those symbols and their actions. The cross is a symbol of surrender and self-sacrifice; it represents Jesus’ relinquishing of power and his refusal to retaliate against his enemies. At the Capitol, however, the cross was erected next to a gallows and carried by those calling for their political enemies to be executed. … More January 6: A ‘Christian’ Insurrection?
Let me share what I gleaned from bringing my daughter to dance camp this week. … More My Daughter’s Dance Camp and the Kingdom
In the age of cancel culture, mercy makes enemies. David French explores why compassion can be so divisive in Jesus’ day and ours. … More Why Compassion Is Divisive (David French)
Throughout Holy Week, two competing approaches to peacemaking collide. Jason asks, “What if we’ve embraced the wrong one?” Here’s a great conversation to usher you into Holy Week. … More Fight Like Jesus During Holy Week
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. By this definition, many pastors and church leaders may just be insane. … More Casting Nets: A Challenge to Pastors
I saw an ad today inviting leaders, content creators, and influencers to learn how to make their faith go viral. What if we instead focus on helping Jesus’ faith and ethics go viral? … More Viral Jesus For an Infected Church
The past year revealed many Christians being animated by the wrong “spirit” and buying into lies and misinformation rather than the truth. Here’s some wisdom from Jesus for the New Year. … More ‘Spirit’ and ‘Truth’ for a New Year
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
Kingdom Harbor 