We like to think we’re not responsible for anyone but ourselves. But God has called us to be priests – we represent God to the world. That has real stakes when we do it badly, as Abraham found out when he lied to Abimelech about the identity of his wife, Sarah. How do we find grace when we’ve failed to represent God to the world well?
Continue readingThe Stranger God
Why do strangers make us so uncomfortable? Abraham’s strange encounter with God in Genesis 18 offers a picture of hospitality that’s radical and challengings: our hospitality is an act of worship. God often comes to us as a stranger because we have something to learn from these strangers. How can we learn to worship through our welcome?
Continue readingThe Longest Walk
Change is always scary. No matter how dysfunctional our ‘normal’ is, it still feels like home to us. But God loves us too much to leave us in our sin and pain. Jesus invites us to go somewhere new with him. But to do that, we have to leave. We see a model of faithful leaving in the story of Abram’s call. He left without a plan… only a promise of God’s presence.
Continue readingGod Is… Father
What does it mean to be a good father? And what do we do if we have bad fathers? In John’s Gospel, Jesus teaches us what fatherhood looks like – and why it matters that God is our father, whether we’re fathers or not.
Continue readingGod is… Son
Too often, we pit Jesus against God, as though they’re playing good cop/bad cop with us. We end up afraid to reach out to God, afraid to pray. But John shows us that Jesus IS God, that he invites us into the interior life of God – a place where perfect love casts out all our fear!
Continue readingGod Is… Holy Spirit
Many of us are afraid to share the good news about Jesus because we don’t think our stories are interesting or remarkable. But John’s introduction to the Holy Spirit reminds us that what makes our story good news is that God has brought us to life – and that’s worth sharing!
Continue readingUnicorn Whisperers
We live in a world that teaches us to hide our true selves. Maybe we’re afraid of being seen. Or maybe we’re ashamed of our pasts. Or we got hurt the last time we put ourselves out there. Whatever the reason, we hide. But Jesus comes as the light of the world, to illumine our dark places with the infinite love of God. How does his light transform us?
Continue readingRemaining in Love
No one wants to admit it, but we’re all really bad at being loved. Our inability to receive love poisons all our relationships. How can we learn to remain in Jesus’ love so that we can share love with the world around us? What does it look like to remain in the true vine?
Continue readingThe True Vine
We live in a mechanized world. The buzz words of the day are ‘productivity’ and ‘efficiency’. But we’re not machines – we’re organic, flesh and blood. Jesus calls us to be not productive, but fruitful. What’s the difference? And how can learning to remain connected to the vine of Jesus help us avoid total burn out?
Continue readingThe Good Shepherd
Karl Marx famously claimed that religion was the ‘opiate of the masses’. He meant what we know – religion can be a powerful means of controlling people. This was as true in Jesus’ day as it is in ours. How can we learn to spot religious manipulation? And what tools do we have available to us to learn to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd, Jesus himself?
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