Reflection: Come and See

"Once they had seen that what the angel said was true, they were to go quickly and tell his disciples that Jesus was alive. They joyfully ran to do just that. I imagine their faces looked like my little sister’s when she saw the piles of gifts. How long was it before they could stop grinning?
"These women obediently told Jesus’s disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead. His disciples told others, and those others told more, and on and on until someone told ME! What about you? Will you come and see?"

Reflection: This Changes Everything

At the moment Jesus yielded up his spirit, onlookers were mocking him. The land had been in darkness for three hours in the middle of the day. At the moment of Jesus' death, the veil in the temple was torn in two and there was a rock-splitting earthquake. Tombs were opened and dead saints came out of them after Jesus’ resurrection. Events were so startling that even the pagan Roman soldiers on guard said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” 
When Jesus’ disciples realized he had really died, they must have believed they had come to the end of the path to glory they had thought they were following with him. Though they didn’t understand what was coming, they had to have been thinking, “Well, this changes everything.” Not for good but for evil.

Reflection: Be Ready

Peter says said our inheritance is being kept in heaven for us. Our salvation is ready to be revealed in the last time. When is that last time? No one knows. It will come like a thief in the night. Be ready.

Reflection: We Are All Sojourners

"We live in a society built on sand and dreamy wishes for the world to be other than it is. Now we’re watching it crumble. As the ransomed of Christ, are you willing to walk through this world as a conspicuous foreigner?"

Reflection: He Has Torn Us

"However torn and bleeding I find myself, believing I’m engraved on the palms of the Author’s hands, I trust he knows exactly the right number of scratches necessary to bring my story to its fitting conclusion."
 

Reflection: When Jesus Says, Come!

If I’ve been under the wrong impression about what I can expect from a life committed to Jesus, I haven’t been listening. “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake” (Mat. 24:9 ESV). “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18 ESV).
Why would I come to Jesus when he promises so many hard things? Because he has the words of life!

Reflection: Imitators of Christ

"The first time I read the apostle Paul’s command to the Corinthians to imitate him, I remember thinking, Wait a minute! Why is he telling them to imitate him instead of imitating Jesus? I’ve always respected this guy, but he really did have some gall."

Reflection: Sandle Strap

Today’s Americans aren’t familiar with a practice that people have understood for thousands of years - the habit of doffing a cap, bowing, kneeling, or simply lowering the eyes before a person with more power, money, or social status. We don’t acknowledge our “betters.”
As much as Christians appreciate that Jesus died for our sins, I’m afraid we often forget that he is something other than we are. He isn’t only our Savior. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. If that’s true, it behooves us to remember it and behave accordingly.

Reflection: A Place for the Called Out

I have an unusual habit. I write letters. I mean the old-fashioned, handwritten (in cursive), on pretty stationery, with a postage stamp, sent through the U.S. mail kind of letters. One reason I do this is that I enjoy receiving letters. There is a look and feel to a personal letter that almost casts its own light from beneath the piles of impersonal, meaningless, or unpleasant stacks of paper that invade our homes through our mailboxes.

Reflection: Do Even More

What I heard Sunday morning was, “Put on your big girl armor, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in everything, because he who calls you is faithful.”