My Bible study is in our eighth week of studying the first epistle of the Apostle Peter, with only one more week to go. As I tried to settle into this week’s text, chapter four, I kept having trouble focusing on the text as a whole, which is how I usually start each week of…
Tag: church
Find Your People
For months, the concept of Christ’s Body, the Church has been percolating in my mind. As I’ve mulled over this odd piece of Christian theology, God has been gradually unveiling both his teaching on the subject as well as its tangible reality within my church. For most of my life, I’ve been a bit of…
Two Things
I got to say hi to P.W. last Sunday – the sky was clear, so her Meniere’s disease didn’t keep her bedbound. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so grateful and delighted to be at church on a Sunday morning. She’d love to linger with her church family all day, as our pastor had…
Emmanuel
I woke up at 4:15 this morning, and I am not a morning person. But, as I desperately tried to fall back asleep, my mind wouldn’t cooperate. Unusually for me, I left some Christmas errands until the last minute, and I spent too many hours yesterday trying to deep-breathe my way out of parking lot…
Clothed in White
It started with an Easter dress. It ended on a cross. Growing up, Easter meant a new dress, church, and a basketful of treats. After moving out and living my own life through college and medical school, I’ve come full circle in some ways. When I got sick at 27, my parents again became my…
Our Finest Gifts We Bring
Unto us a child is born, unto us a king is given. Today we give thanks for the greatest gift ever conceived, the gift of everlasting life, held in the hand of a newborn child. Countless carols describe both the ripples of power emanating from Bethlehem that first Christmas night, as well as the world’s…
How Can I Keep from Singing?
Worship. In so much of the American Church, this means standing up, avoiding anyone else’s gaze, putting your hands on the pew in front of you, and singing. In some churches raising your hands in the air might be preferred. But how many Christians out there admit to participating in this because that’s just what…
Before the Fire 