The Christmas story reminds us of the great relief of innocence and humility. That Christ comes to us in the form of a soft, helpless, and innocent baby restores in our hearts the truth that God is more powerful than human manipulation, oppression...
No one simply stumbles onto Jesus. There are always signposts to Jesus. There is always someone (or something) pointing the way to Jesus. We see this in the birth narrative of Jesus. For the Maggi, it’s the star. Even the cosmos point the way...
Note to the Reader This post is longer than usual, but its length testifies to its importance. Jesus was born during a time of high political and racial tension. For starters, first-century Palestinian Jews were divided among themselves concerning...
Just a few weeks ago, my wife said to me, “Every time someone watches a Christmas movie before Thanksgiving, an elf kills a reindeer.” She feels pretty strongly about when the Christmas season does and does not begin. As for me, I’m ready to put up...
The book of Genesis is one of my favorite books in the Scriptures. There are numerous fascinating characters, events, charming stories, and ultimately a message of hope for a fallen world. This theme of hope is wrapped up in another major theme of...
When people hear that I’m a missionary in Haiti, many of them ask, “Aren’t you afraid?” The answer is always NO. Haitian voudou, like all mystic and pagan-anamistic worldview and religions, is one of fear and intimidation...
We see a sweet, yet bitter contrast in the story of Elijah and Elisha. Elijah stood head and shoulders above his follow Israelites. He was revered as the most spiritual one in the land. He was the one to whom everyone looked to hear a word from the...
I recently had the privilege of writing a chapter for the forthcoming book, Leadership the Wesleyan Way. The title of my chapter assignment was “Holiness and Power: The Recapitulation of Power in the Book of Isaiah”. The chapter explores...
The Bible is full of stories. Furthermore, those stories have main characters (as all good stories do). One of the wonderful things about stories and characters therein is that the characters become our way into the story. That is, we are able to...
The book of Ezekiel is fascinating. There is content in Ezekiel that is unlike any other book of the Bible. Of particular interest is the first three chapters where we find the prophet’s inaugural vision where he sees heavenly beings and the...