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RECONCILIATION: Relationship Restored…No Longer Broken
At some point in our lives, we will all experience a personal relationship that is broken. You can probably think of one such conflict right now. Broken relationships cause pain and often leave us confused about how we can possibly fix them. Most people want to be reconciled so that the relationship can be restored in some fashion. How sad it is when a broken relationship continues to remain broken and isn’t reconciled. What joy we experience when we see a broken relationship repaired and healthy again. Reconciliation is certainly a reason for rejoicing, especially in our relationship with God! But, what does it take for reconciliation? Six terms describe…
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Thanksgiving: Thanks and Reconciliation
While we associate Thanksgiving with Pilgrims and Native Americans, it was Abraham Lincoln who made Thanksgiving a national holiday in the midst of the Civil War. Our country was fractured, yet in his October 3, 1863 proclamation, Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving. Not only that, he asked for prayers for “the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.” Our recent election has aggravated and exposed many divisions that have been simmering below the surface in the United States. Like it or not,…
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Diversity: Can Any Good Thing Come Out of Nazareth?
Standing in Nazareth's Basilica of the Annunciation, I gazed up at mosaics from all over the world. These works depicted the Virgin Mary with Jesus, and in each case Jesus bore the ethnic identity of the predominate group in the gifting country. That is, the art from Ecuador showed Jesus as Ecuadorian; the work from Japan, as Japanese; and the one from Thailand, as Thai. The baby Jesus from Slovenia even had red hair. The mosaics’ creators made these localized images to remind viewers that Jesus is “one of us”—which he is. Yet so many artists have depicted Jesus as white for so long with such far-reaching influence that many…
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Forgiving Each Other
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32 NIV) bold and italics mine I know resentment and forgiveness don’t mix. If anything, resentment leads to bitterness. And guess what? Bitterness loves to mess up our hearts. I don't know about you, but it does very strange things to me. God did not hardwire me to walk around carrying heavy grudges or unbearable burdens. Eventually, they will take a toll on my life. Others around me will suffer the consequences of my ungracious heart. What if forgiving feels like an impossibility? How can we know we’ve forgiven…
