I need a new flashlight. And when I was looking at flashlight ads, I found one that you can turn on, and the beam can either go broad or narrow, concentrated down to a pin dot. Sometimes the pin dot happens for me when I read Scripture. Today, it was this line from the Gospel…

If you were reading along through the Gospel of John, and you heard Jesus say, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23), a part of you would think, Oh. Now we find out what it is that He’s actually talking about. This is true because all through John’s…

The story of the crucifixion is always a story I don’t want to read. I avoid it as much as I can. And yet, especially at this time of year, it draws me in. Prepared by the Father I don’t want to read it, you see, because I don’t want to know the price Jesus…

What do you think about when you hear the word Lent? The world bombards us with questions: “What are you doing for Lent?” “What are you giving up for Lent this year?” “How long do you think you can go without Starbucks [or fast food, or sugar, or whatever they think might be a typical…

I want to start out today with what to me is one of the most chilling verses in the entire Bible, and it’s in Psalm 106: “And He gave them their request but sent leanness into their soul” (v. 15, NKJV). Inner Humility Contrast that to Jesus’ words about himself when he says, “I can…

Each year, the season of Lent, for me, feels like a tremendous relief. No need for pretention; no need for trying to impress. No need to do anything but to enter in with a group of people to acknowledge, quite openly and freely, that we are not all we are called to be. No need…

In Part 1 of this series, we discussed three lessons from Jesus’ Parable of the Net. In this parable, the fisherman represents God, and we are the fish he “catches” in his net. We don’t have the responsibility or the ability to select who is in or out of the net, or the kingdom of…

Jesus, all through what we call the 13th chapter of Matthew, gives his followers a whole series of parables, such as “the sower who goes out to sow” and “the woman who puts the yeast into the flour.” All of these parables lay out in essence an important expression of what God is doing.  In…

In the last post, we looked at the first part of one of our collects (a prayer that gathers our thoughts and intentions). I’m going to print it again here for your easy reference: Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your…

In the next series of blogs, I want to examine one of our collects (a prayer that gathers our thoughts and intentions) in The Book of Common Prayer. This one is known as Proper 6. And what it says is incredibly relevant: Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love,…