Go and make disciples. This is our assignment from Jesus. Not just the original disciples' task, but our task, too.
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We all have parts of our lives that feel dead. Parts that aren’t producing any growth or change. They can feel like tombs we visit regularly that are riddled with fear, shame, and loss.
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That’s exactly where Jesus was after the cross. Lifeless, wrapped in strips of cloth, and lying in a tomb—the antithesis of his manger. Then came Sunday…
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Oddly enough, times of darkness shine a light on the truest parts of ourselves.
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Have you ever wondered what it must be like to be one of the disciples when Jesus was crucified?
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While Easter is the season for us to evaluate the death and resurrection of Jesus, I’ll be the first to admit that I sometimes gloss over the heavy importance of his sacrifice.
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When you tend to someone’s most basic need of food, it not only provides comfort, but it helps them create room for other things.
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One of the hardest disciplines I’m trying to develop is letting people take care of me. I am the carer. I am the nurturer. I don’t need anyone else to take care of me because I take care of myself and my family.
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There is a meaningful connection between the Passover and Jesus’s imminent crucifixion.
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Like we do with God, we can also place unrealistic expectations on those around us—family, friends, significant others, co-workers, the church, and so on.
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Have you ever instantly regretted saying yes to something? Like for some reason, your mouth moved faster than your brain and you automatically agreed to something without really thinking it through?
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Last week we read about the sacrifices the disciples made to follow Jesus. They left family, friends, careers, and everything else behind to join Jesus’s ministry. Although they exchanged the known for the unknown, I wonder if the disciples had any assumptions or expectations of Jesus early on. Hear me out.
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Maybe you’ve read a story of someone who leaves everything behind to obey God’s calling and thought to yourself, “That’s awesome, good for them. But there is no way that God would ask me to do something like that...or even if he did, I would never do it.”
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If you were to ask me a month ago to write a blog about sacrifice, it would have been a fluffy, superficial piece of writing that lacked substance. However, it’s not “a month ago” anymore, and this blog will not be a hypothetical, frilly piece about sacrifice.
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The disciples already knew Jesus; they had a relationship with him. But this was the point that Jesus called them to truly sacrifice and leave everything.
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The one tradition I just can’t seem to get my head around is Lent. I get it in the larger sense of fasting to grow closer to God but that is so rarely how it’s presented.
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Every day is a chance to prepare for the person you want to be. The small things we do as we go along our daily lives are preparing us for something. And I’ve learned that every day, whatever we do and however we do it, we are preparing ourselves to be a certain type of person.
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Before Bethlehem, before a manger in a stable, before wise men came with gifts or angels sang to shepherds, he recognized the Messiah.
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He could have stayed and done what his father had done, his grandfather had done, and likely what his great grandfather had done before him. It was a good living. It was honest work. But sometimes these things do not satisfy that thing inside of us, that calls, in the midst of a normal day. It is a longing that wells up and causes us to ask, “Am I experiencing all there is in life?”
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It has always struck me odd that the birth of Jesus garners so much celebration while his resurrection from the dead barely gets a nod from an Easter bunny and some chickens.
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