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A New Security plugin added to site
I just added a new security plugin to the site as I noted several of our authors were having login attempts from foreign countries. I suggest you change your password to a complicated one. To authors — the lockout is set to 6 attempts of your password and the lockout period is set to 30 mins.. let me know if you are having problems. 1+
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We’re all in this together
Philippians 2:1–13 is part of the lectionary readings for the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, which is September 27th. In verses 1–2, Paul called the recipients of his letter to unity, humility, and obedience. As long as the congregation remained divided, they would not be able to withstand opposition from their antagonists (1:28). Most likely, this hostility was linked to the resistance originating from the pagan residents in Philippi. They had created a mob scene in which Paul and Silas were arrested on their initial visit to the city (Acts 16:16–24). The harassment Paul’s readers experienced undermined their Christian unity. Well aware of how this problem was manifesting itself among his…
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Saintly Superstitions Are Substitutes for Christ
The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who demonstrated through His life and His words that He was fully God. All God’s powers and attributes are in Jesus—nothing missing. There is nothing more of God that we can get apart from Jesus. Jesus Christ is over everything. Evil is under His feet. As we sit with Him in heaven, evil is under our feet. So, when life’s challenges hit us squarely in the face, why do we turn to substitutes? What happens when you get tired of waiting for God to answer your prayer? What happens when you don’t see Him rescuing you from a tough…
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On the Death of “Notorious RBG”
When I entered the tenth grade in Northern Virginia’s Wakefield High School—two miles outside of Washington D.C.—our school had no women’s sports teams. But then Title IX got expanded in a way that gave women the right to equal opportunity in sports in educational institutions that received federal funds. And that included us. So, my Phys Ed teacher invited me and others to play on the inaugural women’s varsity soccer team. And we said yes. Our team wasn’t so great. And people told us the men’s teams were way more fun to watch. They were right, of course. But sadly, only in the past few years did it dawn on…
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Hard questions about abortion and our vote
Why is a candidate being pro-choice such a deal breaker for some Christians? Can’t we put aside our belief about abortion for the sake of unity? (Note: this is a frank discussion and depiction of abortion) I wish that every election season each voter would take the time to watch or re-watch the movie Unplanned. It begins with real empathy for those who seek abortion and those who help them. It’s the true story of Abby Johnson who joined the staff of Planned Parenthood to help women in crisis—the women who called and walked through their doors, tender, upset, weeping. Having experienced two abortions of her own, she wanted to…
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THE SIN WHICH SO CLEVERLY ENTANGLES US
How does one come to this place? Regret. Dark places in the back corners of the mind. Thoughts and deeds done in secret. Memories hidden from as many as possible and hopefully forgotten by the few. Painful remembering of deeds done that cannot be undone. A first, that led to a second, and then a third. Patterns set in time.
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Hope amid hardship
Philippians 1:21–30 is part of the lectionary readings for the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, which is September 20th. Philippi was an ancient town that was originally called Krenides. This means “springs,” which was probably a reflection of its abundant water supply. The city was renamed by King Philip II of Macedonia when he subdued it around 356 b.c. Later, Philippi became a strategic Roman colony, since it was situated on a major road (called the Via Egnatia) that linked Rome with the continent of Asia. This Greek city was located about 10 miles north of the Aegean Sea and was coveted for its gold mines and fertile soil. During Paul’s…
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The Seven Feasts of Israel – Passover
These are the Lord’s appointed times, holy assemblies, which you must proclaim at their appointed time. (Leviticus 23:4 NET) 0
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Please, no more!
I thought this fall would usher in the return of normal work hours in offices and schools, eating in restaurants, and gathering with friends. But COVID-19. It feels like we’ve lost so much this year. How can we move forward into fall when we continue to grieve the loss of so many aspects of our used-to-be “normal” life?
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A Theology of Sleep
It’s no secret that Americans are chronically sleep-deprived. The problem isn’t relegated to just the United States; it seems our neighbors across the pond also suffer from a “global problem of insufficient sleep.” Researchers contributing to a 2014 BBC article named the significant consequences of getting less than 7-hours of shut-eye on a regular basis: depression, heart disease, cancer, and obesity, to name a few. No surprise there. But I was startled by the reason the researches gave for our propensity to deny our body clocks: arrogance. In Reset: Living a Grace-Paced Life in a Burnout Culture, David Murray boldly states, “Show me your sleep pattern and I’ll show you…
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On Suicide
The incidence of depression, anxiety and suicide has skyrocketed as the isolation and life-disruption from Covid-19 has ravaged our world. I wrote this post in April 2013. Over the weekend, Rick Warren (pastor of Saddleback Church in California, author of The Purpose Driven Life) and his wife Kay revealed that their son Matthew had taken his life after a lifelong struggle with mental illness. In an email to his church, Pastor Warren wrote, “[O]nly those closest knew that he struggled from birth with mental illness, dark holes of depression, and even suicidal thoughts. In spite of America’s best doctors, meds, counselors, and prayers for healing, the torture of mental illness…
