January 8, 2010
This Christmas is special for our family because it is the first year that our children have been able to understand the story of Jesus’ birth. We have been adding pieces to an Advent Calendar each evening after dinner, so that the animals in stable, the shepherds in the field, and the wise men traveling [...]
December 18, 2009
Jesus never fits into our agenda.
Even as a baby Jesus’ entrance into the world demanded that people rearrange their lives around him. Joseph rearranged his understanding of the righteous thing to do with a pregnant fiance, based on the angel’s message that “that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:20). [...]
December 15, 2009
A week ago the New York Times published an article about a crime featuring a familiar situation and a very unfamiliar phrase. The situation: a wife learns that her husband has cheated on her and seeks to exact revenge on his mistress. Her means of this revenge? Enter the unfamiliar phrase: attempted abortion. In short, [...]
December 10, 2009
The Christian’s relationship to this world is one of the great paradoxes of the faith. On the one hand, this world was created by God and deemed to be “very good.” Even after the fall, God continued his love for his creation, most poignantly displayed by entering into it as the God-man Jesus. Rather than [...]
December 1, 2009
As recipients of God’s mercy in Christ we all have countless blessings for which we will give thanks to God eternally. Since my space here is finite, let me share three particular blessings for which I am deeply thankful this Thanksgiving season.
1. I am thankful to God for Aaron Dotterer’s leadership and the direction of [...]
November 25, 2009
The most exciting thing in working with young people is that they are full of energy and full of potential. If you can steer their energies in the right direction, you not only affect their future life ahead, but also the lives that person will interact with as they go. What is at stake in [...]
November 17, 2009
Suffering is one of the prominent features in the landscape of the New Testament that our American sensibilities find repulsive. Perhaps it is more a human than cultural problem, but the last year of economic disaster has unveiled the extreme to which we are addicted to comfort and stability. Yet the simple reality permeates the [...]
November 10, 2009
What does it mean to “portray” the gospel of the kingdom? This may not be a pressing question on your mind, but I hope it becomes one as we consider what it means to minister the gospel in our neighborhood, city, and world. Portraying the gospel goes hand in hand with proclaiming the gospel as [...]
November 10, 2009
On Saturday from 4 - 6:30 PM we hope to intercept as many trick-or-treaters as possible and share food, games, and the love of God with them. I thought I would give you a preview of a handout we will be giving to the parents, printed in both English and Spanish. Our hope is that [...]
October 28, 2009
Our back yard currently consists of two colors: green and brown. The green is the lush winter rye that I planted a number of weeks ago, and the brown is the grassless dirt where the sprinkler does not reach. Like Asaph seeking to understand why the wicked prosper, my perennial attempts to make sure all [...]
