St. Paul writes to the church in Rome: “I appeal to you, therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1) Sacrifice is not a concept we like to talk about much these days. Even […]
I understand that Navajo weavers developed a tradition called the “Spirit-Trail” as they wove their beautiful blankets. The Spirit-Trail is created by the weaver deliberately forming a break in the line of their pattern. This “break” could be as simple as a single contrasting color thread, blazing its way at the weaver’s directive across the […]
Yesterday we talked about Jonah. Well, there is another passage in Jonah that challenges me. Jonah was called to preach to the people of Nineveh. They were a particularly brutal, bloodthirsty lot. But, when they heard Jonah preach, they repented. In chapter 3, we read, “When God saw what they did… God changed his mind […]
I love the book of Jonah. I especially love how real and human Jonah comes across. He runs from God. He repents only when he finds himself in deep deep trouble. And, he gets mad when God forgives his enemies! Jonah claims that he is mad enough to die! Not that Jonah is the kind […]
I once heard about George McCauslin, who was a director for a large YMCA. He was a bright guy, energetic – supposedly one of the best in his field. For a while, he was running a Y outside of Pittsburgh and he found himself working 85 hours a week. He was getting little sleep at […]
The late George Buttrick, an acclaimed preacher, and professor at Harvard University used to tell an apocryphal story. This story of course did not make its way into the Bible but was nonetheless very poignant. The story goes that one day Jesus came across a bird sitting on the ground in obvious frustration. The bird […]
Paul Harvey tells an amusing story about some airline baggage handlers who retrieved an animal carrier from the luggage bay of an airliner. As they removed the carrier, they made a gruesome discovery. The dog inside was dead! The baggage handlers panicked. They thought that there might be lawsuits and that they might even lose […]
The Templeton Foundation recently funded a major nationwide study on people’s attitudes toward forgiveness. It was co‑sponsored by the University of Michigan and the National Institute for Mental Health. The study was fascinating! It found that 75% of Americans are “very confident” that they have been forgiven by God for their past offenses. 75%! However, […]
A little girl was sitting on her grandfather’s lap as he read her a bedtime story. From time to time, she would take her eyes off the book and reach up to touch his wrinkled cheek. She was alternately stroking her own cheek and then his again. Finally, she spoke up, “Grandpa, did God make […]
In a sermon, Pastor John Ortberg once told about an 8-year-old boy who was kind of a nerdy, clumsy, chubby kid. One time a group of bullies was chasing him calling him, “Fat Freddy.” He ran toward the home of an elderly widow in the neighborhood. He prayed she would be home to let him […]
