“As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people both now and evermore.” (Ps. 125:2) My daughter had just lost it, sitting on the top step in the hall of a four-plex in Burbank. “We’ll never find a place to live! We’ll be homeless forever!” We’d been staying with my big brother in […]
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will […]
“Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have come to believe.” John 20:29b Easter is a Rebellion. Our believing in the Resurrection is a rebellion. It’s a rebellion by us and God Godself against our petty and corrupt lives, our fear-filled world. Easter is God’s rebellion against us making God into our own […]
John 3:17: “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” Matthew 6:45b, 48: “[God] makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous…Therefore, just as your heavenly Father is […]
“There must be no limit to your goodness, as your heavenly Father’s goodness knows no bounds.” Matt. 5:48 Revised English Bible (Oxford Study Bible) I like Matthew’s Gospel, and as I study it this time, I see that Jesus knows exactly who He is and what we are supposed to do to be like Him, […]
“You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world…let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven…Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to […]
“I lift my eyes to the hills; from whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth…” Ps. 121 My first pondering, two years ago, was on this scripture. Much has happened here, for us, for Bardsdale UMC, and for me, since then. Yet, every time I look at […]
Hope, Peace, Love and Joy: I wish these gifts of the Christ-child’s Spirit, for all of you. The scripture of the season is from Isaiah, about the wolf and the lamb lying together, the bear and the cow feeding together, the lion eating straw like the ox, and “a little child shall lead them…They will […]
“When the Lord your God has brought you into the land he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you – a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, houses filled with all sorts of goods that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did […]
Expectations: “Those who have ears to hear, let them hear…” (Mk. 4:9 Mt. 11:15; Lk. 8:8, etc.) “And [God] said, “Go and say to this people: ‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.’ Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that […]