Is it all really vanity? It could be but it doesn’t have to be. Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23 Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem, applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; […]
Jesus had a way of cutting straight through the noise. In Luke 12:13–21, someone from the crowd asks Jesus to intervene in a family dispute over an inheritance. Sounds reasonable, right? But Jesus doesn’t take the bait. Instead, he warns everyone listening: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not
Our Feelings Matter I’ve spent most of my life trying not to feel emotions. When I was a kid, I watched the movies. I got the message. Boys don’t cry. Boys don’t get sad. And we sure don’t show weakness, in fact we don’t show any emotion unless it’s anger, and then only in a
How To Talk Yourself Out Of Depression (part 3 – Final) Read More »
Hope In The Midst Of Despair There was a time in my life—right in the middle of my divorce—when I honestly believed I would never feel happy again. It was a darkness so heavy and so thick, I knew it would take a long time to get through it. I know that sounds dramatic but
Before we get into Psalm 42 and how it relates to depression, it gives us a strange heading—“A Maskil of the sons of Korah.” This forgotten intro might be the key to the whole psalm. We usually skip the line at the top. You know the one. That ancient-sounding superscription we brush past to get
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Transformation Is Slow After Jesus sends out the seventy in Luke 10 and they return amazed at what they’ve seen, he responds with a moment that feels both celebratory and sobering: “I watched Satan fall like lightning from heaven… But don’t rejoice that the spirits submit to you. Rejoice that your names are written in
Jesus tells his disciples after returning from a mission where they healed the sick, cast out demons and preached good news, to not rejoice in the results they got but to rejoice that their names were written in heaven. A message we still need to hear today. When the seventy returned from their mission, they
In Luke 10:2, Jesus tells his followers: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” In the religious group I was part of for over a decade, this verse wasn’t something to ponder—it was something to act on immediately.
For years, from my mid 20’s to my late 30’s I was involved with a religious new testament based cult. One verse that got blasted from the pulpit more that any other was: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into
In the lectionary this week we are looking at a passage from Galatians 6 about building spiritual community “Those who are taught the word must share in all good things with their teacher.”— Galatians 6:6 This one sentence has always puzzled me because it seemed to jump out of context. After reading it today, I
