It seems that Evangelical Christians are always trying to figure out who we are. I remember reading Francis Schaeffer’s A Christian Manifesto in high school. I don’t remember much of it now, but I do remember it causing me to think a great deal about what we Christians are. Later, I struggled through Lloyd-Jones’s What …
Category Archives: Faith
5th Sunday of Easter 2008: Dealing with Sick Bodies
Though with a scornful wonder Men see her sore oppressed, By schisms rent asunder, By heresies distressed: Yet saints their watch are keeping, Their cry goes up, “How long?” And soon the night of weeping Shall be the morn of song! —”The Church’s One Foundation”, Samuel J. Stone/Samuel S. Wesley This past week has been …
Saturday in the Fifth Week of Lent: 2008
Psalm 85:1-7; Ezekiel 37:21-28; John 11:45-53 As Lent blends into Easter, we see clearly the purpose for our time of fasting and self-examination. Through Lent we prepare for Holy Week and Easter. Certainly part of that preparation is to purify ourselves, to confess our shortcomings. However, we do not confess to an unmerciful Lord bent …
Friday in the 5th Week of Lent: 2008
Psalm 18:1-7, Jeremiah 20:7-13 My wife and I once took teaching jobs that we were convinced God meant for us to have. We left the urban North for the rural South to do what we believed God called us to do. Yet others—Christians—made doing that work impossible to the point of affecting our spiritual and …
Thursday in the 5th Week of Lent: 2008
Genesis 17:1-8, Psalm 105:4-11, John 8:51-59 My parents once made a chart with days and chores on it. Each day I did my chores, I earned a star on the board. At the end of the month, if I earned enough stars, they promised to buy me a skateboard. It was our covenant. What made …
Wednesday in the 5th Week of Lent: 2008
John 8:31-42 “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:31). These words are among the most famous declarations Christ made. As hopeful and inspiring as these words can be, they were not so to Christ’s original audience. These believers immediately grasped the implication that to be made free means …
Tuesday in the 5th Week of Lent: 2008
Numbers 24:4-9, Psalm 102:15-22, John 8:21-30 Forty days of Lent can sometimes feel like forty years in the desert. We leave the heady celebrations of Christmas and Epiphany to enter stark cold, short days, blustery wind, and gray skies. Remembering the festivities, we long for the liveliness of spring. Along the way, we grumble and …
Monday in the 5th Week of Lent
John 8:1-20, the book of Susanna What does it mean to have the “light of life” (John 8:12)? Today’s lessons feature stories of men accusing women of sin. In one story the woman is innocent of the charge; in the other, the woman appears to have committed the sin. In both cases, the woman is …
Second Sunday in Lent: 2008
Ok, so here’s the thing about the Lectionary Muse: evidently you have to actually write down the stuff that the muse sends your way in order for anyone to read it. Go figure. And here’s the second thing: The Muse this week, ironically as you’ll soon see, didn’t especially move in the totality of the …
First Sunday in Lent: 2008
Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save —Collect for First Sunday in Lent Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-17, 35-3:7 Psalm 51:1-13 Matthew 4:1-11 Romans5:12-19 It’s not quite the Romans Road, but the readings for the …
