There's a lot of what God does - and of what God does for us - that we don't know. And often we don't know that we don't know. [Click title to read more.]
Tag: love
This New Year, Vow To Be Your Brother’s Keeper
A strong and unmistakable mandate of the Christian ethos - one of Christianity's defining characteristics - is that we are to love and care both for those who love us, and for those who do not. We are heart-obligated to the community around us. [Click title to read more.]
Christmas Is A Beginning
Christians--instinctively, I think--tend to divide up our understanding of Jesus-as-baby versus Jesus-as-savior. The cosmic moment, the violent sacrifice, the grand and undying love: we save our contemplation of those things for Easter. But they started in the manger. [Click title to read more.]
You Are The Window To Wonder In A Skeptical World
Most people look askance at the mere concept of miracles in general. Or angels. Or an afterlife. The idea that humans might be part of a bigger, broader story, that there is something epic and cosmic and important above and beyond us, has fallen into irrelevance beside the urgency of now. And that is why love matters. [Click title to read more.]
Getting To Know The Spirit Of God
It is the business of the Spirit to linger over what is unformed, what is empty, what is not yet, and to make it something new and beautiful. [Click title to read more.]
Bringing Biblical Hospitality Into The Present Day
Outside the church, we have to handle hospitality on our own. Believers still open their hearts and homes to people, but more likely than not we already know those people, and like them. We entertain, but entertaining doesn't always mean we're "loving strangers." Most of us won't come into direct contact with weary travelers crossing the land and looking for a place to stay. So what does hospitality look like in the modern age?
Defining “Neighbor” Beyond Convenience
A lot of us have an idea in mind of who our "neighbors" ought to be. They are kind, benign people who live near us; they are sometimes homeless, but always grateful and quiet; they are people willing to accept our kindness and generally deserving of it. All too often, my neighbors are people it does not inconvenience me to love. [Click title to read more.]
God’s “Humanness”
Make no mistake; God judges. He is holy and He is sovereign. But he also loves. Loves in a way that is all-consuming. He can be moved. He pities. He delights. He grieves deeply. He gets angry and just as quickly swears that the anger against those who love Him will not be lasting. [Click title to read more].
The Spontaneity and Joy Of Christian Freedom
In the Old Testament, God had a miles-long list of instructions for the building in which His presence would dwell; in the New Testament, He has two paragraphs for the believers in whom He dwells. Such a command seems simple, sometimes too simple, and sometimes it goes against our instinct to complicate things. [Click title to read more.]
Divine Eagerness
Whenever you are feeling far from God or distant from His love, please remember the divine eagerness of 2 Samuel 7. God wants to be with His people; He wants to be invited to dwell among them and with them. [Click title to read more.]
Samaritan's Song 