The Wrong Promise: The Wrong Promise I was bawling during my morning commute. On the way to school drop-off, we listen to The Daily Radio Bible podcast. This morning Hunter Barnes was reading from Judges 11, the story of Jephthah. Hunter in his smooth baritone helps us read the scriptures in the light of the good news …

Reading Scripture Together as a Spiritual Practice: Ordinary Time is the season in which we practice life alongside the Resurrected Jesus. Through the Spirit Jesus is personally involved in our discipleship. Jesus has not left us as orphans. He participates in our formation as we attend to his presence. Christian communities have always met Jesus …

It’s a mistake to think of God’s promises as being a law he’s bound to follow instead of a love he loves to express. God isn’t good to us because he has to be. God is good to us because God is good.

Jesus doesn’t need his Father to show off Because he knows his Father will always show up!

Thanks to @drose for this great commentary on how the preoccupation of earthly powers affects their response to the good news of the Kingdom of God. As always, we try to assimilate the Kingdom of God so it is subject to our own kingdoms. I just bumped into this quote: “When the Greeks got the …

King of the Feast: King of the Feast Published in the March 26 2025 GCI Update. Isaiah 25:6-8 NLT In Jerusalem, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies will spread a wonderful feast for all the people of the world. It will be a delicious banquet with clear, well-aged wine and choice meat. There he will remove the cloud of …

Champion: Don’t read the story of David and Goliath from the perspective of David. Read it from the perspective of the people of Israel. Their armies are useless; their future now hangs on single combat. If a champion can be found to go up against Goliath, they stand a chance: if Goliath can be killed, …

What Jesus has done for the good of humanity is FAR more powerful, effective, and wide-reaching than any ill done by Adam. God’s redemption is greater than man’s corruption. When you think of your sin, your perpetuation of what Adam began, as being beyond the reach of what Jesus did, …

Riverside: Jesus in Cana turns the waters into wine. In the courts of Ozymandius he turned the waters into blood. Jesus connects with us. When we rejoice he rejoices with us. When we suffer, he suffers with us, even to the shedding of his own blood. We are easily overcome by despair, but Jesus' capacity for …

The Grin of God: May we the children of God who resent and fear and despise the children of God on the other side of our town the world the border the picket line the political divide their dinner table come to know we are the children of God and they are the children of God and so receive the blessing of our Father …

The New Testament does not say, “Do these things and you will have a better life.” No. Instead, “You already have a better life. Now live like it!”

God created humanity for joyful togetherness, not to be fuel for the fire. The best way to understand God is as a very good Father, and the best way to know the Father is through Jesus, who is like his Father in every way. Jesus is God’s final word to humanity about what God is like, and about …

Beyond measure: Ephesians 3:18 May you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. Last night we were discussing the great Pauline prayer ending Ephesians 3. It’s really something. Oh, that we should make this our prayer too, and …

Don’t think God is this monstrous alien figure that acts evil and demands we call it good. No; think again! Jesus shows us a God who is more human than we are.

We’ll never thrive if we keep trying to attain or prove acceptance. Instead, acceptance comes from love, and we are already loved. Now believe, and extend that same love and acceptance to others.

Pentecost is for communion: Pentecost is another step in God’s progressive intimacy with his people. The one God who created the world became the covenant God of one people and visited his people as one man, Jesus, now lives not only with us but in every one of us as one Spirit. In becoming more particular God also …

Travel to the Philippines - with dementia: Our family of four (including Jerry, a participant in the DCSL Adult Day Health Program) traveled to the Philippines for three weeks. We had a lot of anxiety over how Jerry (Dad) would handle the travel, especially jet lag. Getting there Our itinerary: RDU to New York JFK: 2 hour flight, with a 9 …