It's Election week. How are you praying? With anxiety? Or joy? Paul writes in Philippians 1:3 that he always prays “with joy.” That convicts me, because on my good days I can say I pray with gratitude, but most days I pray with anxiety and not with joy. With the...
I’ve been thinking about expectations and particularly about the kind of expectations we should have of one another in the Church. What sparked this line of thought was a video we watched as part of our officer training where we heard about a man who had been active...
It is said that we live in an “age of anxiety,” so what should we as Christians do in the face of so much anxiety? One thing I do is turn to Psalm 42. In Psalm 42:5 and again in verse 11, the Psalmist asks, “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed (anxious)...
The Bible says there is “a time to be silent and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:7b), but how do we know which time it is? When it comes to talking about Jesus, it is a time to speak. And I mean that literally. Lots of people love the quote from Francis of Assisi,...
Who is the kindest person you know? What is it about them that makes you think of them as kind? I suspect if you dig into those questions, the people who come to mind will be those who are intimately connected to Jesus. That’s because kindness is one evidence of a...
I’ve been thinking about the end, or purpose, of the Christian life and think it can be summed up as being with Jesus, knowing Jesus and doing what Jesus does. Over the next few weeks, I want to look at each of these starting with being with Jesus. Jesus died to save...
In one of my devotions this week I read this line: “Through silence, solitude and stillness, the sediment of life is settling down, and things are getting clearer.” (Peter Greig, Lectio 365, June 20 morning). Add to this that the practices of silence and solitude were...
Easter isn’t over. According to the Church calendar, Easter Sunday actually began a whole 50-day season of Easter. Just as for the 40 days of Lent we mourned, repented and fasted, for the season of Easter we are supposed to rejoice, celebrate and feast. You would...
“Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What's happened to the world?" This line, spoken by the Hobbit Sam in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Return of the King, so captures Easter Weekend. On Good Friday...
So, I’ve been at the ECO National Gathering this week with eight others from our congregation (including Pastor Scott and Karen!) and around 1,300 others from our denomination. It has been wonderful to catch up with friends, network, learn and worship. Naturally there...