Posts from January 2013

“I knew from her talks with me about her faith that coming to know grace – God’s unmerited love for her – was central to Leah’s growing sense of spiritual connection with the church.  Just the week before, we had talked long into the evening about grace and God’s desire that she flourish and know the fruits of life abundant, a concept that was new to her but one to which she was rapidly warming.  This week, however, a story-ritual…

Church language about Grace inevitably comes around to a discussion of salvation.  The word alone may be responsible for the damage and rejection people feel as they attempt to navigate their lives in a religious direction.    Frederick Buechner writes about salvation likes this: “It is an experience first and a doctrine second.  Doing the work you’re best at doing and like to do best, hearing great music, having great fun, seeing something very beautiful, weeping at somebody else’s tragedy…

We are created for…. “You think that for your acts, good or bad, there is deserving. Let God show you otherwise. Be present to God in the present moment. Let God free you of the past. Learn from it, yes; receive from it, let it shape and guide you. But it does not control you, or God. You live with the consequences of what you have done, but God does not attach reward or punishment to that. God only grants…

Our worship this Sunday will be rooted in Ephesians 2.10. “For we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”   In “A Blueprint for Discipleship” Kevin Watson writes:  “If we believe that both faith and works are important, then we might logically ask, ‘Which works?’ In other words, what should followers of Jesus Christ do to grow in faith?”  Our scripture this week lifts up both.  We know…

“Maintaining the communal practice of worshipping God..is one of the fundamental things that any local church does.  When a church ceases to maintain worship, that church is essentially dead and is no longer rightly considered a church.” ( from A Blueprint for Discipleship by Kevin Watson  p 83.) How is worship where you are?  How does the worship you attend excite you?  How does the worship of your community lead your spirit to a quiet center?  What about your worship…

“It is make-believe.  You make believe that the one who breaks the bread and blesses the wine is not the plump parson who smells of Williams’ Aqua Velva but Jesus of Nazareth.  You make believe that the tasteless wafer and cheap port are his flesh and blood.  You make believe that by swallowing them you are swallowing his life into your life and that there is nothing in earth or heaven more important for you to do than this. It…

Witness of the Word, simply described, is “telling what you know to be true about Jesus and God.”  Fred B. Craddock is one of the great preachers of our time.  Here is a description of him:  “He is a diminutive, bespectacled man whose voice is so soft that he once compared it to ‘wind whistling through a splinter on the post.’ ” (Learn more about Fred Craddock in this CNN piece.)  When Fred went to college he was not given…

The language of prayer provides a strategy for intimacy with God.  Our prayers may include poetry, movement, prose, argument, doubt, discovery, silence.  “Once I was lost but now….” may be your prayer.  Our prayer song at The Table right now includes these lyrics:  “Will you call me child, when I tell you lies, cause all I know is how to cry.” (from Brokenness Aside by All Sons & Daughters).  Your prayer may be danced.  Did you know that Hula imparts…

Our worship this Sunday will be rooted in Ephesian 2.8-9. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”   In a conversation with his mentor Peter Bohler, John Wesley in a time of doubt asked “How can you preach to others if you don’t have faith yourself?”  Bohler answered “Preach faith til you have it;…

“When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie, my grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply; the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.” dross |drôs, dräs|nounsomething regarded as worthless; rubbish: there are bargains if you have the patience to sift through the dross.• foreign matter, dregs, or mineral waste, in particular scum formed on the surface of molten metal. This is a verse from the old hymn “How Firm A Foundation”.  How could…

“The Jesus who ‘died for our sins’ has simply got to go. . . . Christianity must move beyond a rescuing Jesus.” Part of me wants to purr like a kitten in relieved agreement. Yes, let’s sweep away the cobwebs clinging to Jesus the rescuer. But then I realize that I am face down on a linoleum floor somewhere in my life, powerless, praying like mad, “You’ve done it for others, God. I am begging you, do it for me.”…