life. faithful.

  Who is this man? The Jewish chief priests and elders accuse him of crimes their people say deserve his death, yet he doesn't open his mouth. They say he is claiming to be the King of the Jews, staging a rebellion, yet he just stands there, silent. He listens to the crowd calling out for his crucifixion, be he doesn't defend himself. What kind of man does that? Who is this man, that he just walks like a lamb to slaughter? He is mocked and beaten, spit on and with thorns pressed into his brow--and yet he doesn't resist, doesn't protest, doesn't respond to those mocking him as King. He is offered wine to dull his pain, but he refuses. What kind of man can take such pain? Who is this man, who even when hung on a cross doesn't curse his executioners? Even now as he dies they mock him, yet his only response? " Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing. " He hangs on a cross, yet he promises the criminal beside him that he will be...

Every once in a while, I read a verse of Scripture and think, "I wonder when that got put in there..." because it catches me as something I've never noticed before. As we are nearing the remembrance of Easter, one of those verses caught my attention: " When Jesus was on the earth, a man of flesh and blood, He offered up prayers and pleas, groans and tears to the One who could save Him from death. He was heard because He approached God with reverence. Although He was a Son, Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered   And once He was perfected through that suffering He became the way of eternal salvation for all those who hear and follow Him" (Hebrews 5:7-9) As they prepared to enter Jerusalem, Jesus knew what He was about to face. He even pulled His disciples aside to tell them plainly (because He had already told them a couple different times and the just didn't get it) that He was about to be mocked, tortured, executed, and raised from the d...

  There's a small country church in our community that makes it a point to love on people through loving on the school. They show up in support all the time, but one of the main things they do each year (usually more than once) is by taking over the concession stand for a home basketball game night. They run the stand for every game that night, and they don't charge anyone for anything. When I was teaching, kids would be talking about the "free concessions" all day for those games. They would talk about everything they would get since it was free. I tried to make it a point to remind them that the concessions weren't free--they were just being paid for by somebody else. Because during those games, that church keeps track of everything they give people--and at the end of the night, they pay for everything. Those nights are far from free. If you've ever had dinner at a basketball game, you know how much it costs to even get a simple, basic meal: typically $2 fo...

 To the one searching for identity, First, can I tell you that my heart breaks for you? There's nothing quite like that lost feeling, the feeling that you don't truly know who you are supposed to be, that you're somehow "not right" and don't fit. It swallows up every other thought and feeling, makes you feel more alone than you could ever imagine. If you don't fit in your own skin, how can you ever fit with other people? You somehow feel wrong, and that leads to feeling like everything you do is wrong and can never be right. And then, a group comes along. It seems like they have all the answers--they tell you that you don't feel like you fit because you've been in the wrong body all along. If you were born a female but you don't like "girly" things, it must mean you were supposed to be a boy, right? Or if you were born a male and don't show interest in guns and playing in the mud, you must just really be a girl. Not to mention all...

 On my drive in to work Monday morning, I heard a couple of songs I've heard a bunch of times but haven't heard in a while. The combination stuck in my head and spurred thoughts I want to share. First the lyrics that stuck out, then my thoughts: *** " There's a sign on the door, says, "Come as you are" but I doubt it 'Cause if we lived like it was true, every Sunday morning pew would be crowded But didn't you say the church should look more like a hospital A safe place for the sick, the sinner and the scarred and the prodigals Like me Well truth be told The truth is rarely told Oh am I the only one who says   I'm fine, yeah I'm fine oh I'm fine, hey I'm fine but I'm not I'm broken And when it's out of control I say it's under control but it's not And you know it I don't know why it's so hard to admit it When being honest is the only way to fix it There's no failure, no fall There's no sin you don...

 "Too many of us in the Church are like Samson, asleep in the lap of Delilah." ~Adrian Rogers I'm sure you've heard about Samson and Delilah, though it may have been a while. It's typically a Bible story we learn as kids, though it's seldom something we hear about as adults. To refresh you memory, Samson was called by God to be a Nazirite. He was to be set apart for God's service, to take a vow that his life would be dedicated to that service, and (among other things) not to cut his hair as a visible sign of the vow he had taken. Then he met a girl... and after a bit of beating around the bush he told her that his hair was the source of his strength, and she shaved it all off. As followers of Christ, we are called to be set apart for God's service. We're not supposed to be like the rest of the world: we should look different, act different, be different . When we gave our lives to Christ, we made a vow to serve Him with our whole life and our whole...

When my daughter was about 3, she would have told you, without hesitation, that she wasn't a little girl--she was a puppy. She would be a puppy at the grocery store , much to my embarrassment. She was committed, let me tell you. There was more than once that we had to get onto her for licking somebody or for barking in response to a question she was asked, or to tell her to get up off the floor and walk on her feet instead of crawling on all fours. Why do I bring that up? Because we have somehow decided that kids are capable of making life-altering decisions when they are at an age when it used to be considered completely developmentally normal for them to pretend to be any number of things, from a puppy to a train. What has never been normal, though, is to tell a child that they actually are whatever they are pretending to be. Now, though, we're supposed to go along with whatever someone is pretending to be.  We've come to a point in our society where it has somehow be...

 I'm finding words to be elusive. An incredible man drew his last breath early Thursday morning, October 21st, his family by his side. Yesterday afternoon, my hometown gathered around his family to say goodbye. It is hard to wrap my mind around it happening so quickly; they hadn't even had time to adjust after hearing that dread ed word: cancer. I suppose on one hand that can be seen as a mercy, but right now I have to admit that I just see it as a tragedy. My heart is broken for everyone who knew and loved Frank. And as far as I can tell, to know him was to love him. I can't speak for anyone else, but I know I am incredibly thankful for the years I've counted him as part of my church family. That phrase doesn't really do it justice--our tiny little group is a lot more of a family than it probably implies. I'm thankful for the countless Sunday mornings spent sipping coffee, eating breakfast, and studying God's Word at a table with Frank. He was always quic...

 Dear God, We're told in Romans, " We are weak and do not know how to pray, so the Spirit steps in and articulates prayers for us with groaning too profound for words." (8:26) Right now, that's where I am. I think it's where so many of us here in the United States are, because right now our country is anything but "United." The division and hatred is wounding so many hearts and causing so many rifts. The most horrific part of it all, though, is not the fact that our country is divided--that's something that has been coming for a long time. The worst part is how those of us who call ourselves Your children are divided. God, You are holy and just and perfect in Your love. You know we are weak--after all, You created the dust from which You created us. You know our lives here are nothing more than a breath, and You know how much we mess up. Despite it all, You love us. Somehow, for some awesome reason I can't wrap my mind around, You love us. You...