We’ve all had the experience of thinking we heard someone say something only to find out what they actually said was quite different from what we understood. For those of us with hearing impairment this is a regular occurrence. Even with our hearing aids in, we can struggle at times to clearly understand people withContinue reading “Learning To Listen To God (1)”
Category Archives: Opening the Bible
Insider Entitlement
According to the site Statistic Brain, 50 billion dollars is lost annually in the U.S. due to employees stealing from their employer. That accounts for 43% of “shrinkage” or retail loss (shoplifting was 37%). According to Fortune, that’s a higher percentage than anywhere else in the world. Why do people steal from their employers? I would guessContinue reading “Insider Entitlement”
How Is Your Hearing?
Mark 4:2 tells us that Jesus “taught them many things by parables.” We’ve all heard a parable defined as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, or the more literal “to throw/cast alongside” which is suggestive of thinking of parables as analogies. Maybe it’s most helpful to keep in mind that parables are word pictures.Continue reading “How Is Your Hearing?”
Face To Face With The Good News
Mark writes like man in a hurry. There’s no lingering or loitering with him. His gospel begins by telling us of a rugged, fiery prophet named John who is living (at least temporarily) and preaching in the wilderness. Crowds come pouring out of Jerusalem and the surrounding areas to hear him. They respond overwhelmingly toContinue reading “Face To Face With The Good News”
Breaking Open Our Jar
Full disclosure: “Here Comes the Sun” is one of my favorite songs. I like the music, I like the words, and I love the message of hope that it gives. It’s had a special place in our family over the years as we’ve shared it with each other on a few occasions. Recently, I cameContinue reading “Breaking Open Our Jar”
All You Need Is Love
It was a different place and a different time. It was 1967 and what would become known as the summer of love. There was an ambitious idea from Aubrey Singer and the BBC for a global television event called Our World—a live broadcast featuring segments from all over the world. The Beatles were asked to comeContinue reading “All You Need Is Love”
Speaking The Truth In A White Lie World
“You have my word on it.” Does that mean anything today? Hopefully, it does. We’d like to think it means that you meant what you said, you can be trusted, others can count on you. The sad truth though is that we live in a world where the truth isn’t always the truth. We live in aContinue reading “Speaking The Truth In A White Lie World”
You Are The Treasure That I Seek
Jesus has been discussing seeking God through giving, praying, and fasting in Matthew 6:1-18. He’s instructed His disciples to “do not” in regard to certain practices of the Pharisees (v. 2,5,16). In 6:19ff, He takes up another “do not,”—do not seek earthly treasure. Once again, the Pharisees are the entry point of the discussion. They were lovers of moneyContinue reading “You Are The Treasure That I Seek”
Winning The Day
It’s hard to read through the Sermon on the Mount without being struck by Jesus’ emphasis on living life in the same manner as it is given by God—one day at a time. To this point He spoke about praying for daily bread (“Give us this day our daily bread” – Matthew 6:12). It’s easyContinue reading “Winning The Day”
What Happened In The Wilderness
It’s easy to think of Jesus resisting temptation in quantitative terms—He was able to do more than we could. We could have resisted up to a point, but Jesus resisted all of the way. There’s truth to this of course, but it’s not the whole truth and consequently if we treat it like the whole truth itContinue reading “What Happened In The Wilderness”
A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green 