I am not a Racist. How could I be?! I have a lot of reasons for comfort with diversity, and I believe I welcome it. My mother, although white (I …
What Should We Pray For?
The topic of prayer still preoccupies me. Previously I wrote reflections on how to pray. And now it’s what to pray for? What do we want from God? Generally, the …
How Should We Pray?
The topic of prayer preoccupies me. I feel inadequate coming before God since I don’t know how to pray. Is there a best way? If so, how do I learn …
Mission in Ordinary Life
“It’s been a tough several weeks,” my brother-in-law told me. In his battery and tire business, the longest-serving of ‘his guys’ had quit to go to a better job. It …
Not my Will but Yours be done, Lord
In my life, that’s often been the end of a prayer requesting something I wanted but probably wouldn’t get, or that I hoped to avoid and might not be able …
Following Christ in Pain
Where do we turn when everything goes wrong and will never be right again? Where can we find continued meaning in life? What might be “God’s plan” in the midst …
Who’s the King? And Where is Jesus?
Some time back, our pastor, Ric, spoke on the “kingdom” parables in Matthew. Usually we assume that the King or the Manager in a parable is God. Really? The parable …
And Who Knows?
The Bible story of Jonah is very engaging, and the day our pastor, Ric, preached on it, he started by having us tell what we knew about it. That contributed …
The Natural Next Step
Looking backward, I finally located a quote from Dallas Willard that has been under my skin for many years. It’s from The Divine Conspiracy, Chapter 2, where he critiques “gospels …
To Scavenge
There’s a lot of darkness around us, enough to make us think it overpowers the light. In his sermon last Sunday, Ric described how the magi in Matthew 2 are …