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Wanted: Nobodies and Nevergonnabe’s
Truth: God delights in using the weak, insignificant, least of these people to fulfill His kingdom’s purpose. While the world looks for the strongest and the bravest and the biggest and the best and the most accomplished; our God, seeks the weak, and the weary, and the poor, and the “insignificant,”and the lowly, and the unseen and the least of these. He empowers them to accomplish things beyond human comprehension. This is one of the many things I love about God. King David started out as a lowly shepherd boy, the least in size of all his brothers. So insignificant that his own father didn’t even beacon him from tending…
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Guaranteed Joy: The Twelve Blessings of Christmas
It is one thing to *want* to focus more on giving time and gifts of love to Jesus and others at Christmas. It is another to actually resist the cultural gravitational pull of manic celebrations, %50 off sales and pouring all our energy into producing our own family Christmas. I like the *idea* of spending less on things we don’t need and focusing on lavishing unexpected kindness on others, especially the least of these, but the actual reality? That’s not so much what my track record tells me. This year has afforded a new opportunity to actually DO something. In the ten days still left before Christmas—here are some…
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The Best Christian Response to Terror
Another beheading. More Christians raped, murdered and fleeing ISIS in terror. The enemy wants us to feel powerless. Hunker down. Circle the wagons. But Jesus always calls us to something richer and life-giving, even in the midst of death. After we’ve written a check, after we’ve gathered in our churches and prayed for our brothers and sisters on the other side of the world, after we’ve signed petitions…then what? What can we actually DO in a hands on way? Jesus shows us his way to respond to needy people in crisis in Matthew 25: We give food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty. We take in refugees and strangers.…
