Easter 12

 How much love does our Triune God possess?  I often think I’m so smart in wanting to know answers to unanswerable questions. The pondering begins with ‘why’?  But reading Isaiah 53 is a profound reflection that God is beyond our understanding, yet He has Huber us the wisdom and grace we need to trust Him. We aren’t taught much about the mystery of letting God handle our unanswerable questions. 

“Faith is in the middle of adversity, re-aiming the affections of our heart on a superior reality.

Denial and denying the existence of problems is flat out unbelief. How do we get cultured into that?

We read in the scriptures that all of our human experiences can, under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, through an open heart, lead us to a place of deeper faith. I believe that with my whole heart, even our deepest grief. But what happens when you can't feel God's presence in your suffering? How do you survive the long stretches where you have felt like he was silent or distant?” - From Win Today podcast #433: The Art of Lament: Aubrey Sampson on Our Weird Pressure to Perform for God, and Why We Have Yet to Be Formed by Mystery in Loss, Mar 26, 2025

“A life deeply rooted in Scripture is absolutely essential for a healthy relationship to God, self, others, and the world at large. Equally essential, though, is a life deeply rooted in the Holy Spirit, who leads by experience and functions in partnership, not competition, with the explanatory Holy Bible.”- Excerpt, The Familiar Stranger by Tyler Staton

Easter 11

 How much of our faith today rests on our comforts?  How much of our church going experience relies on our consumer mentality - what can I get out if this?  But when the dark nights, the worst of life happens, when grief and loss gut our normalcy, where is our faith?  Today’s study and Scripture point to our Savior who experienced the worst that our world could throw at Him. He knows exactly that our world is lacking a long list of corrections. He came to redeem and reconcile and we wait for our full redemption and reconciliation. It will happen but we wait. We move forward with His presence in us as the deposit of what is to come. 

“So, we need not fear the dark. It’s not the absence of God but the refining of our sight. It’s not death but gestation. The Western soul may be aching and disoriented, but hasn’t been abandoned. It’s being gently led into mystery.

The question is: How do we remain faithful in the dark? How do we listen when there’s no sound? How do we trust when the path disappears?

Faithfulness in the night means letting go of what no longer gives life, practicing unseen acts of love, turning toward God even when God feels absent, and waiting with hope, even when there’s no guarantee of dawn.” - Graham Joseph Hill

“Oh, that you would come and begin simply to listen to His Word and to ask only the one question: Does He really mean that I should abide in Him? The answer His Word gives is so simple and so sure: By His almighty grace you now are in Him; that same almighty grace will indeed enable you to abide in Him. By faith you became partakers of the initial grace; by that same faith you can enjoy the continuous grace of abiding in Him.” - Andrew Murray, Abide in Christ: The Joy of Being in God's Presence

Easter 10

 Have you ever been scared beyond belief?  Afraid that all that you had hoped for was in ruins?  Our pastor used to say that you are either coming out of a crisis, in one, or about to have one. I don’t think that is a cynical statement but a realistic one. Whatever we have faced or will face, Jesus knows every detail and our Triune Hod is right beside us. I’m praying that I will be much stronger, much more present with His presence, for my next traumatic situation. I want to train my heart and mind to take refuge in Him, not me or my circumstances. 

“The Kingdom is where everything is turned upside down. Those who are marginal, those considered not respectable, are suddenly proclaimed as the people who are called to the Kingdom. The part of us that is weak, broken, or poor suddenly becomes the place where something new can begin. Jesus says, “Be in touch with your brokenness. Be in touch with your sinfulness. Turn to God because the Kingdom is close at hand. If you are ready to listen from your brokenness then something new can come forth in you.” - Henri Nouwen 

“It is only into the thirst of an empty soul that the streams of living waters flow. Ever thirsting is the secret of never thirsting.” - Andrew Murray, Abide in Christ

Fatherless World

 Hero Worship Is the Symptom of an Orphaned Generation

A fatherless world makes idols out of men.

And the weaker the man, the more he worships them.

Hero worship is counterfeit masculinity.

It’s a mask for helplessness. A cloak for insecurity.

It’s what boys do when they’ve never seen true fatherhood in action.

Men of God don’t bow to other men.

They honor. They respect. But they don’t worship.

Because they know the only Hero worth imitating died on a cross.

Let a woman see you hero-worship another man?

You’ve just told her: “I’m not enough.”

You’ve shown her weakness in disguise.

There is only one model: Christ.

And He doesn’t ask for fanboys.

He demands followers.

Never forget that.

Walk like you’ve been adopted by the King.

Eyes up. Chin firm. Spine unshaken.

Easter 9

 How have you viewed the promise of the Holy Spirit?  I’m certain that I haven’t encountered enough teaching from the Bible even though I’ve encountered multiple viewpoints. I’m trying to learn more, especially from respected authors, current and classic. His presence is with me, in me, protecting me, providing the mercy and grace needed each day. The Spirit points to Jesus, and in essence is Jesus in me. The mystery of His presence, invisible, untouchable, can only be experienced by following the Way of Jesus.

“The Creator who breathed life into dust to create people filled with his Spirit is also the Re-Creator who breathes life into the lifeless, refilling people with his Spirit.” - Excerpt, The Familiar Stranger by Tyler Staton

“The Holy Spirit is not courage, or energy, or the personification of all good qualities, like Jack Frost is the personification of cold weather and Santa Claus the personification of wanting to give someone a tie. The Holy Spirit is not a personification of anything, but the Holy Spirit is a person just the same as you are a person. He has all the qualities of a person. The Holy Spirit has substance but not material substance. He has individuality. He is one being and not another. He has will and He has intelligence and He has feeling and He has knowledge, sympathy, and the ability to love and see and think and hear and speak and desire and grieve and rejoice. And Jesus said about the Holy Spirit, “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me” (John 15:26” - A.W. Tozer

When God Became Man

 Many men have tried to become God.

Only one God became man.

Not to conquer.

But to serve.

Not to be worshiped.

But to bleed.

The Pharaohs built empires.

Caesars claimed divinity.

Dictators demanded worship.

But only Jesus Christ—

“the Word made flesh”—

humbled Himself to be rejected by the world He made.

“He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”

(John 1:10-11, KJV)

He did not cling to His throne.

He descended.

Put on flesh.

Walked among traitors.

Died for them.

“Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant…”

(Philippians 2:6-7, KJV)

That’s not weakness.

That’s the highest authority wrapped in humility.

And one day?

“At the name of Jesus every knee should bow… and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

(Philippians 2:10-11, KJV)

Don’t bow later.

Bow now.

Before the God who became a man—

So you could become a son.

Easter 8

 I have glossed over the impact of John 13. How do the words of Jesus hit you?  One thought hit me is that our world focuses on acquisition of power, influence over others, and an accumulation of wealth and knowledge. We often calculate comparisons with who has more or who knows more. But there is no scale to measure the depth and length of love. Yet the world has a right to see if we are a hypocrite, or whether we are truly authentic in our faith by the we treat others. I’m guilty of failing so many times but God’s grace gets me to stand up again after falling down. Instead of making attempts to do more ‘for’ God, I’m learning to be ‘with’ His presence, allowing me to experience His working. 

“In John 13 the point was that, if an individual Christian does not show love toward other true Christians, the world has a right to judge that he is not a Christian. Here Jesus is stating something else which is much more cutting, much more profound: We cannot expect the world to believe that the Father sent the Son, that Jesus’ claims are true, and that Christianity is true, unless the world sees some reality of the oneness of true Christians.” - Francis A. Schaeffer, The Mark of the Christian

"If we truly love people, we will desire for them far more than it is within our power to give them, and this will lead us to prayer: Intercession is a way of loving others." - Richard J. Foster