Reading: Luke 9:51-55 I got a call this morning from my friend Brian Diggs, who is the Director of the UMCOR West Depot in Salt Lake City, an ordained United Methodist pastor and…The Deacon of Doom. See, Brian's hobby is working out his altar ego (pun intended) in the professional wrestling ring, portraying a preacher-gone-bad …
Reading: Psalm 84 Every time I take a group on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land I always insist that the guide take us to the Israel Museum where we can view a scale model of Jerusalem and Herod's Temple as it appeared around the time of Jesus. It's an impressive model that I wish …
“Better is One Day (or 30 years) in Your Courts..” – Day 16 of Lent Continue Reading »
Today's devotional is captured from Henri Nouwen's The Living Reminder: "Ministry is service in the name of the Lord. It is bringing good news to the poor, proclaiming liberty to the captives and new sight to the blind, setting the downtrodden free and announcing the year of the Lord's favor (Luke 4:18). Spirituality is attention …
Reading: Galatians 5:22-26 I just got my first issue of Mental Floss magazine, which is devoted to all things nerdy, smart, trivial, and downright interesting. I like to think of it as a little bit of brain candy to snack on when I need a break. One article that grabbed my attention right away was …
Reading: Psalm 42 Back in my youth director days I used to lead backpacking trips each summer in the Pennsylvania hills. One summer I had a group of about ten kids, a couple of leaders on a trek across a long mountain ridge in the middle of the day. I was in the rear of …
Reading: 2 Timothy 4:6-8 I got home from a Walk to Emmaus retreat last night, too late to see Canada win the hockey gold medal in overtime (thanks to Penguins forward Sidney Crosby), but just in time to see the closing ceremonies. Well, "see" probably isn't really accurate. What I mean to say is that …
Closing Ceremonies – Reflection for Day 12 of Lent Continue Reading »
“The search for God is a reversal of the normal, mundane wordly order. In the search for God you revert from what attracts you and you swim towards that which is difficult. You abandon your comforting and familiar hsbits with the hope, the mere hope that something greater will be offered to you in return …
“The world will ask you who you are and, if you do not know, the world will tell you.” Carl Jung Today, will you be defined as a disciple of Christ?
Reading: John 15:12-17 As a prolific blogger, I recently found out that I'm a member of something called the "blogging community." Apparently I've been missing the meetings. What's interesting to me, though, is that when people think of bloggers they often picture an angry Una-bomber type person banging away at their 100,000 word manifesto because …
Love One Another – Devotion for Day 8 of Lent Continue Reading »
Reading – Philippians 3:17-4:1 If you’re like me and grew up in the church, you probably had some really great Sunday school teachers who helped you on the path toward ministry — people who, week after week, gave up their time and sanity to lock themselves in a room with some socially inept yet theologically …
Citizens of Heaven – Devotion for Day 7 of Lent Continue Reading »
Luke 4:1-13 On September 12, 2008, an engineer on a California passenger train ignored a red warning light and a dispatcher’s verbal warning before crashing into a parked freight train at 40 miles per hour. 25 people died and 135 were injured. Investigators later discovered that the engineer, who died in the crash, was texting …
Reading: Galatians 1:11-24 When I was a kid sitting in church I used to be fascinated by the testimonies of people who had been radically converted to Christianity–you know, stories of debauchery and excess turned to stories of faith and wholeness. Growing up in the church from my earliest memory, I used to be a …
The Transforming Word – Preparing for the First Sunday of Lent Continue Reading »
Reading: Colossians 1:24-29 (Use the Logos app in the left column to look it up!) Watching the Olympics this week I'm always amazed at the use of the word "glory" to describe what the athletes are doing and the medals they're getting for it. Last night we watched Shaun White sail an insane distance above …
"Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being." – Genesis 2:7 Last Wednesday night we had several things going on at the church. Our preschool was having their winter program, while we had a couple …
Ashes to Ashes – A Meditation for the First Day of Lent Continue Reading »
Check out the sidebar for a photo album with more snapshots from the Korea trip.