- Acts 1-12 is about Peter and Kingdom of God: the contrast is against the King Herod.
- Acts 13-27 is about Paul and Kingdom of God: the contrast is against the king Caesar.
N.T. Wright
February 29, 2008 at 3:23 am (Reflection)
2 Corinthians 3:2, 3
February 28, 2008 at 5:35 am (Scripture)
You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
2 Corinthians 2:14, 15
February 28, 2008 at 5:32 am (Scripture)
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.
The Barometer of Our Lives
February 25, 2008 at 6:34 pm (Devotional)
- Although the table is a place for intimacy, we all know how easily it can become a place of distance, hostility, and even hatred. Precisely because the table is meant to be an intimate place, it easily becomes the place we experience the absence of intimacy. The table reveals the tensions among us. When husband and wife don’t talk to each other, when a child refuses to eat, when brothers and sisters bicker, when there are tense silences, then the table becomes hell, the place we least want to be.
- The table is the barometer of family and community life. Let’s do everything possible to make the table the place to celebrate intimacy.
Galatians 6:2, 9, 10
February 25, 2008 at 6:25 pm (Scripture)
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. . . . Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
Galatians 5:13-15
February 25, 2008 at 6:22 pm (Scripture)
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
The Tyrannical Trinity
February 24, 2008 at 9:03 pm (Sermon)
- “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world-the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who the will of God lives forever.” 1 John 2:15-17″
- It is important right at the outset that we see the far reaching social implications of the issues with which we are dealing. These are matters that profoundly affect corporate and institutional, as well as private, life. The social dimension to money is ‘business’; for sex it is ‘marriage’; for power it is ‘government’.
- I am using the terms business, marriage, and government in their broadest sense. Business refers to the task of bringing forth the goods and services of the earth either to bless or oppress humankind. Marriage refers to the human relationship par excellence that creates the context for either the deepest possible intimacy or the greatest possible alienation. Government refers to the enterprise of human organization that can lead toward either liberty or tyranny. Instantly you can sense that money, sex, and power are vital issues, not only to each of us as individuals, but to all human society.” Richard Foster
Simple Prayer
February 22, 2008 at 11:50 pm (Prayer)
- Dear Jesus, how desperately I need to learn to pray. And yet when I am honest, I know that I often do not even want to pray.
- I am distracted!
- I am stubborn!
- I am self-centered!
- In your mercy, Jesus, bring my “want-er” more in line with my “need-er” so that I can come to want what I need.
- In your name and for your sake, I pray. – Amen. Prayer, Richard J. Foster
The Intimacy of the Table
February 22, 2008 at 3:30 pm (Devotional)
- The table is one of the most intimate places in our lives. It is there that we give ourselves to one another. When we say, “Take some more, let me serve you another plate, let me pour you another glass, don’t be shy, enjoy it,” we say a lot more than our words express. We invite our friends to become part of our lives. We want them to be nurtured by the same food and drink that nurture us. We desire communion. That is why a refusal to eat and drink what a host offers is so offensive. It feels like a rejection of an invitation to intimacy.
- Strange as it may sound, the table is the place where we want to become food for one another. Every breakfast, lunch, or dinner can become a time of growing communion with one another. Bread for the Journey, Henri J. M. Nouwen
Ephesians 4:29-32
February 22, 2008 at 3:25 pm (Scripture)
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every from of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
