in morning prayer this week we read from Matthew 9.27-34 about how Jesus heals two blind men and frees another man from some demon. what was interesting about the translation we were reading from was that it said this: 'As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, calling out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" When He had gone indoors, the blind men came to Him, and He asked them, "Do [...]
watched this clip this morning via my good friend megan 'pacifier' donald and found it really simple yet powerfully profound... by movingworks.org
so this week i found out on twitter that our south african olympic swimming gold medalist, cameron van der bergh, had admitted to cheating to get his gold medal by doing a succession of dolphin kicks underwater in the pool [apparently only one is allowed] and it bummed me out. so, as one does, i made a facebook status about it... and was doubly surprised and bummed at how many [mostly christians] wrote comments on [...]
i imagine this is a much bigger post or discussion than what will fit in here but let's get it started... a soccer player [who was worth something like 40 million something - does it really matter when you hit 40 million whether the next word is pounds, euros or dollars?] scores a goal. a hundred facebook statuses [stati?] read something along the lines of 'amazing goal - so worth the money spent' i get [...]
some more challenges from ‘Prayer: Does it make any difference?’ by Philip Yancey and you really should get the book: 'I remembered reading the account of a spiritual seeker who interrupted a busy life to spend a few days in a monastery. 'I hope your stay is a blessed one,' said the monk who showed the visitor to his cell. 'If you need anything, let us know, and we'll teach you how to live without [...]
this is a long psalm, so may just do it in two parts... starts off with a very familiar statement: 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' [verse 1] Jesus groaning from the cross... or me, sitting and chatting with my wife on my bed last nite... i seem to be able to relate to a lot of the groany [whiny?] stuff of this psalm which i appreciate for its raw and rough [...]
it has been in the context of 'being wronged' that i have noticed it. and also brought up by an email i received the other day asking how we can be okay with the fact that God ordered genocide in the old testament [a really important question which i have grown up not asking - killing of many in the old testament was always seen as okay because it was 'the goodies killing the baddies' [...]
we read this as part of morning prayer this morning: 'Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "Jesus Christ lived in the midst of His enemies. At the end, all of His disciples deserted Him. On the cross He was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers. For this cause He had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God. So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life, but in the thick of [...]
psalm 15 is a short and schweet psalm and the message i got from it is to live well. the psalmist gives some examples of what living well looks like - 'speaks the truth from their heart', 'utters no slander', 'does no wrong to a neighbor', 'casts no slur on others', 'keeps an oath even when it hurts', 'lends money to the poor without interest', and 'does not accept a bribe against the innocent' with [...]
continuing my journey of reading through the psalms at a leisurely pace, making some observations as i go along, inviting you to jump in to the comments section with a verse or idea or question or wrestle that possibly jumped out at you as you were reading this particular psalm: which is Psalm 4 vs 4 jumped out at me in this one: 'in your anger, do not sin; when you are on your beds, [...]