I’ve been reading through Psalm 12 for over a week now. Initially my focus as I read was on verses 6-7: The Lordʼs words are absolutely reliable. They are as untainted as silver purified in a furnace on the ground, where it is thoroughly refined. […]
My eyes grow dim from suffering; they grow weak because of all my enemies. – Psalm 6:7 There is a theme in these early Psalms about struggles and finding God through those times. There are many laments of asking God where God is at. Psalm […]
This is my favorite statue in one of our local cemetaries. It reminds me of my favorite novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany (if you have read the book and notice the hands here, you’ll understand). Anyway, I have photographed this statue from a variety […]
As I have been going over this passage many times this week both for my own personal work as well as for the sermon on Sunday, I was originally thinking about an underlying message of brokenness – the brokenness of the woman who anointed Jesus […]
A few days ago, we had Chinese food for dinner to celebrate Chinese New Year and we of course had the fortune cookies afterwards. We had the usual things you’d expect to read in a fortune cookie and then we had this one. This was […]
There were several things I was hearing in this week’s passage. I heard one message that will be what I’ll be sharing on in worship on Sunday about the new that Jesus brings into life. But I heard another one personally this week about watching […]
The readings for yesterday and today from the Gospel of John all deal with the same situation – a man who was born blind whose sight is restored (actually can it be restored if he never could see before?) by Jesus and the “investigation” that […]
In yesterday’s reading from John 8 is one of the most well known sayings of Jesus – “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” When I read that […]
The reading from 2 Kings today was hard to read. 2 Kings 17 tells the story of what feels like a “final straw” where King Hoshea is deposed by the Assyrians and the residents of the Kingdom of Israel are taken into exile. Verses 7-21 […]
This morning, I came to the story in Luke 8 where a woman who has suffered from bleeding for years is healed by Jesus. The unusual part of this story is that the woman doesn’t come and talk to Jesus but instead tries to sneak […]
A few months ago, President Obama was heavily criticized when he gave a speech where he criticized some of the not-so-positive parts of Christian history. Here is the Washington Post’s article about it from last February. Personally, I didn’t find anything offensive about it – […]
Mark 5 When I went through Mark a few months back I focused in this section on the woman touching the hem of Jesus’ cloak. Today, however, I zeroed in on the age of the young girl who is restored to life. The passage says […]
