Two or three times in as many years, I have had conversations about Jesus’ parable in Mark 12 of the vine growers. The argument posited to me ran like this, “Doesn’t this parable prove that in Messiah, God was taking His Kingdom from Israel and giving it to the gentiles? Look at what Jesus says, […]
For all the times Jesus was accused of working on the Sabbath on the one in which He seemed to be resting, He was doing His greatest work of all. As He lay in the tomb, no one accused Him of healing on the Sabbath, though even then, He was giving us the one healing […]
Whether we hear the cry from the lips of David or from the dying Savior “My God, Why hast thou forsaken me?” the cry makes little sense from either. These are two people with a sense of the LORD’s presence and intimacy and yet the draw from the well of the deepest human pain, alienation. […]
Whether you are passing through rejection, sorrow, sickness, injury, God in Christ not only meets you in it, but helps you to carry it.
The lamb was the people’s wealth and sustenance. To slay a yearling was to slay all those that would come from the animal. For the faithful in Egypt, the offering of the lamb was saying this, “God we have turned our back once and for all on Egypt. Our future is in You and You only. “
Growing up, I learned that Hanukkah, Passover, and Purim spoke of the need, motive, and way of social justice. Keeping the feasts and telling the stories kept us focused on the need to see and lift the oppression of others. We were moved to do so because we ourselves had suffered. We were compelled to […]
Julius Sprauve Elementary School was an all-black school, until my brother Aaron and I arrived. We were not well received. It got worse when the mini-series “Roots” came out. The vivid depiction of slavery raised deep feelings in my classmates. Their anger was leveled at my brother and me. I learned that time does not […]
Colosians 3:3-4 3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. When it comes to the Spiritual life and the spiritual disciplines, our hiddenness is at odds with the world. The World […]
From the 2020 Pandemic to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the winks and nods from the powers of this present darkness to those who seek to kill and destroy has left too many sisters and brothers vulnerable. It is not time to be silent but to cry out until the walls all come […]
“Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Genesis 2:7 The word “being” in the Hebrew is “nephesh” literally “throat.” A “throat” can thirst and cry. To be a “being” is to be capable of thirsting and […]
