The Practice of Belonging
The eternal words of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu really help me with both the Read More
Today's Disciplines Devotion
In my first year as a pastor, the church I served experienced a crisis that consumed the community. It was an exhausting series of days filled with tears, anger, and regret...
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Many psalms are attributed to David, and even more reflect the experience of a king anointed by God. Psalm 1 sets up the “wheat and chaff” metaphor. Psalm 2 continues the...
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A lighthouse is a powerful lamp that guides people safely to shore. Most people experience it from a far distance, spotting it many nautical miles away from the rocks. When sailors...
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God has a way of bringing the most unlikely people together throughout scripture, but this one really takes the cake. God joins Moses, the leader of the ancient Hebrews; Elijah, a...
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Reality is elusive in Exodus 24. The thick descriptions of God are paradoxical. At first, God’s presence is described as a cloud covering the mountain, but the very next verse references...
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After talking about salt and light, Jesus returns us to righteousness. Is righteousness just a state of being? Or is righteousness about what we do in the world? This passage seems...
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By this point in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is well into the Sermon on the Mount. He gives the well-known instruction to be salt and light. A master of metaphors,...
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My wife and I have a running joke. If there is a breakdown in communication, one of us will say to the other, “This would be a lot easier if you...
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In this passage from the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul waxes a bit ironically about his inability to communicate well. He downplays his eloquence and knowledge. He talks of the...
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The psalmist continues Isaiah’s theme of righteousness as a beacon of God’s way. Rather than lay into us for failing to be righteous, though, the psalmist connects God’s goodness with the...
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What do we do when we’ve experienced loss? How do we move forward? Isaiah seems to know human psychology, suggesting one common response to loss is lashing out at others. Instead...
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