mercy

Don’t Be Fooled by Smoke and Mirrors

“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.” – Jonah 2:8 The story of Jonah and the whale is a powerful testament to God’s goodness and mercy. Jonah was called by God during the bronze age of the Akkadian Assyrian empire, which was brutal and full of villains. Citizens of this kingdom were oppressed by their kings, so God told Jonah to go tell the citizens of Nineveh to repent. In contrast, Jonah traveled in the opposite direction and a huge whale swallowed him. That sea monster seemed like punishment, but it was actually God’s mercy. It is what keeps Jonah from drowning and brings him back to Nineveh. As a result, God reinstated his calling. During his time in this whale, Jonah said some of scripture’s most profound words. In the King James Version of the above scripture, he said, “Those who observe lying

February 28, 2023 2 Comments

A Man of Unclean Lips

“Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’ ” – Isaiah 6:6,7 Yesterday, we saw God’s love and mercy extended to His servant, Isaiah, the prophet who was dedicated in service to the temple of the Lord. His whole life changed after one moment in the temple where God in theophany appeared. His reaction: “Woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips.” Today, I want to share that as a teenager, I would teach our small high school Bible study from this passage in Isaiah Chapter 6. I thought that “unclean lips” meant he cussed, so I would teach my peers not to use foul language. I have

January 21, 2023 1 Comment

Good Deeds

“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.“ – Matthew 5:16 During the Christmas season, we are led to reflect more on the heart of Jesus. Jesus’ good deeds included healing the sick, and having mercy and compassion for others. He also had fellowship with people who society deemed as undesirable to associate with. One young man of good deeds born in 270 AD was Nicholas of Barre, an Ionian Greek. He was a Christian at the time Rome was crucifying Christians, burning them alive and feeding them to lions. He devoted his life to God and simply wanted to bring joy and happiness to people, even though life was so dark and challenging for Christians. He tried many ways to do this, and then something happened — his parents tragically died and left him

December 20, 2022 No Comments

Your Best Life

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” – James 1:19,20 We need to move from being ego-driven people who are always first to judge or call people out, to becoming a listening, humble, and life-giving presence in the world. Of course, this can be a challenge when people are cruel, unfair, unkind, and rude. However, life in the Kingdom of God enables us to be a force of mercy and healing, even in an increasingly angry and hostile society. Our best life doesn’t come when we get really good at finding out what’s wrong with the world and pointing it out, but rather when we become the kind of people who are unoffendable, relaxed, and walking in the easy rhythms of grace. This

November 13, 2022 No Comments

What Forgiveness is Not

“And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?” – Luke 18:7 On this Veterans Day, we are grateful for those who have served our nation and fought for our freedoms. May God bless you and your families. Today we continue our series on forgiveness. Many of us misunderstand what forgiveness is, so the thought of letting go of the wrongs done to us sounds awful, even painful. However, it’s important to know that when we talk about not holding onto offense, we are not pretending that nothing ever happened. I talked to my mentor (who’s also a therapist), Bill Gaultiere, about this years ago, and he shared with me three things that forgiveness is not. I think it’s important to understand these before we talk about what forgiveness really is. First of all,

November 11, 2022 No Comments

Forgiveness is a Great Gift

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” – Luke 6:37 Every good relationship consists of two people who are good at forgiving. When we live with others and do life with them, we will have to forgive offenses, whether large or small, in order to have joyful, fruitful connections. All of us have people in our world who can be challenging at times, but we need to release them to God. Especially since we ourselves can be challenging at times, so we want grace to be extended to us as well! Whether a roommate, spouse, best friend or colleague, Jesus’ forgiveness is a great gift. As we learn to be like Jesus we learn to have a merciful response to everyone we do life with. God has forgiven you for all of the

November 8, 2022 No Comments

A Greater Reflection

“On hearing this, Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’ ” – Mark 2:17 I believe the Lord commands us to be: merciful, friendly, kind, welcoming, and a healing presence. Each of these is the greater reflection of who Jesus is and the heart of God. Jesus Himself said God did not send him into this world for the healthy, but for the sick. The heart of God is one in which people in crisis would come to a place where believers are gathered to find care, comfort, and compassion. If you are going through hard times, feeling defeated in your job, or can’t face another bill or doctor’s appointment, come to this loving place. People who are clouded with doubts about God, or the meaning of life, could gather for

August 8, 2022 No Comments

Do What Jesus Taught Us

“Do to others as you would have them do to you.” – Luke 6:31 We know that at the heart of Jesus’ message, and really at the heart of true Judaism, is do unto others as you would have them do unto you. There’s a great apocryphal story relating to this about one of the greatest rabbis of all time, Rabbi Hillel. He lived a generation before Jesus, and his influence continued in Judaism in Jesus’ day. In this story, Rabbi Hillel had an opposing rival: Rabbi Shammai. Legend has it there was a young man who was considering becoming a Jew, but first, he asked Rabbi Shammai, “If you can explain to me all of the Torah while standing on one leg, I will become a Jew.” Rabbi Shammai was put off by his request and chased him off. Then he went to Rabbi Hillel and asked the same

July 17, 2022 No Comments

Imperfect Yet Perfectly Loved

“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” – Titus 3:4,5 Do you ever feel like you’re not enough? Are you constantly believing that after you change that one thing in your life, then you’ll be blessed? Unfortunately, it’s easy and all too common to feel like people don’t really see you, and that if they did, they wouldn’t love you or might even reject you. At the root of this is often the mistaken belief that God is mad at you. After all, if He doesn’t approve of you, who will? However, this is the good news about Christianity — it’s like every other religion, only inverted! Nearly all religions say that if you do X, Y, and Z right, then God (or the gods) will be on your side.

July 5, 2022 No Comments

Grace and Goodness Overcome Evil

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” – Romans 12:21 I remember when I first got to seminary. I was a young 25-year-old who knew everything because, well, I had the Bible and that was all I needed. However, being part of a Reformed denomination, I was told that if I wanted to be a pastor, I needed to go to seminary. So on my first day, I waltzed into a class and a really well-known theologian was my professor. At one point that day, when he made an assertion about something, I stood up and literally said to him out loud, “You’re wrong!” He didn’t lash out at this point nor did he make me feel embarrassed, he simply began asking me questions. As he worked on dismantling my argument one probe at a time, I gradually lost confidence in my position and sat down

April 25, 2022 2 Comments

Don’t Be Fooled by Smoke and Mirrors

A Man of Unclean Lips

Good Deeds

Your Best Life

What Forgiveness is Not

Forgiveness is a Great Gift

A Greater Reflection

Do What Jesus Taught Us

Imperfect Yet Perfectly Loved

Grace and Goodness Overcome Evil

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