An Update to Poor in Spirit I’m updating Poor in Spirit in response to a Tweet from Kevin Shearer this morning asking what we, the Church, were going to do about the problem of loneliness among various groups. To my friend whose cross is heavy with a mentally ill adult child and parent with Alzheimer’s, ignore this, you just keep …
Yes or No, Anything Beyond is Evil, Matthew 5:33-37
The Power of Yes and No: Living Jesus’s Call My Word, My Faith My “yes” or “no” defines who I am. In Matthew 5:33–37, Jesus teaches that my word should be simple and true: “Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything more comes from the evil one.” When I say “yes” to Jesus, He shapes me into …
Just Looking Good Isn’t Enough, Devotional Matthew 5:21-32
Just Looking Good Isn’t Enough Just looking good isn’t enough for God. As long as my focus is on my goodness and my effort to be good—or even my effort to be good in front of others, this section makes no sense because Jesus is not talking about meeting minimum standards, looking good, or just getting by. He is talking …
Temptation: It Depends on Your Direction, Devotional, Matthew 4:1-11
Temptation: Relevance? A discussion of temptation is only relevant when I seek a relationship with God. If my desire conforms to my own definition of good or to a casual, convenient, socially, postmodern, acceptable definition of good; a discussion of temptation remains relative. With no outside standard, I do essentially what I want as long as I don’t commit a …
Not a God of Wishful Thinking or Religious Sentimentality: Devotion, Matthew 2
God is not a god of wishful thinking based on my expectations or sentiments. Religious sentimentality and religious wishful thinking may feel good but give little value or substance to face the difficulties of life. Although I like to feel good, and the holiday season is very pleasant, I must go beyond this if I am to have a relationship …
Miracles Part of the Journey Not the End: June 3, Devotional Readings
This post Miracles Part of the Journey Not the End and the previous two are an experiment to make the blog more relevant and useful to readers. Starting with tomorrow’s post, I will narrow the discussion to one chapter from the New Testament. Miracles part of the spiritual journey, not the end, in other words, the purpose of miracles was …
Idolatry or God
Today we build economies by creating marketing messages or stories to make ourselves believe that we want a product and ultimately need it. In comparison, in the ancient world, pagan prophets served as marketers, and entire economies were built on idol worship. Idolatry continues to flourish; even today some idols live among things we think necessary. Modern forms include: materialism, …