A challenging passage for today: See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we…
No, the title of this post is not a typo. I didn’t mash my head against the keyboard. Instead, these two words are part of a puzzle that surrounds the Easter story as it’s found in Mark. Actually, those two words represent the way you can tell if you have…
Normally, when something is empty, it’s a bad thing. For example, I’m a huge Coke drinker. It’s always a sad experience when I get to the bottom of a can and need to throw it away. If you buy a movie and there wasn’t a DVD in the case, you…
Today, many Christians celebrated Palm Sunday, remembering how Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. There’s a bunch of stuff packed into this one story, but I find one detail in Luke’s version of the events interesting. Jesus’ disciples are making a lot of racket about how Jesus is the…
Over the last several weeks, we’ve been taking a look at a man who can best be described as an anti-prophet. Jonah was told to go to one of Israel’s mortal enemies, to preach a message that could potentially lead to their repentance. Knowing how gracious God can be, Jonah…
I have a deep, personal connection with the worm from the book of Jonah.
When last we left Jonah, the reluctant prophet was deep in the belly of a fish. Why is he in a fish? Because he tried to run from God and the fish was God’s way of getting Jonah back on track. After the fish spits Jonah back out again, God…
After trying to run from God to avoid going to Nineveh, Jonah found himself on a bit of a detour. He’s thrown into the sea, only to be swallowed by a giant fish, where he stays for three days. I’m guessing that when you’re trapped inside an aquatic creature, it…
Last week, we saw how Jonah wound up running in the opposite direction when God called him to go preach to the city of Nineveh. It’s kind of understandable that he did; the Assyrians weren’t exactly the most loveable of people. Given Jonah’s understanding of God and His grace, he…
Like I said last week, Jonah the prophet is sort of unusual in terms of his ministry. He’s very much an anti-prophet and he doesn’t behave as he we think a prophet should. Maybe that’s understandable because of his unusual call. Most prophets were called to deliver a message only…