Many (most?) Christians express confidence in their loyalty to how they worship God, the congregation they belong to or the denomination they subscribe to or their self-righteous declaration of freedom from all gatherings of Believers. Read more…

“Make every effort to
add integrity to your faith; Read more…

This is Holy Week. That seems a good time to look at how Jesus challenged followers to live. While we sometimes revert to the comfort of cultural traditions, Jesus expected something else. Read more…

Tonight a big winter storm has been forecast to hit here. Rain, snow and freezing rain make up this weather intrusion. And so we get ready. Read more…

Dear Jesus, help me.

I can say to those who do not follow You that I love them (and it is even true when I say it – when I can’t I reach for the level of being polite), but how far do I go in offering them the invitation to become part of the spiritual family of God (rather than just the creation family of God)? Read more…

“We must also consider how to encourage each other to show love and to do good things. We should not stop gathering together with other believers, as some of you are doing. Instead, we must continue to encourage each other even more as we see the day of the Lord coming” (Hebrews 10:24-25 God’s Word). Read more…

I just found another kindred spirit in cyber world, brutalized by religion and, like Paul, left outside the “city walls” as dead. That does not make the story, for what humans intended for evil God turns for good. “We know that suffering creates endurance, endurance creates character, and character creates confidence. We’re not ashamed to have this confidence” (Romans 5:3-5 God’s Word). Read more…

We assemble with a small number of others as a house Church. I call it “Circle”.

Last night the question came about why so many people who self-identify as Christians not only refuse to discuss difficult questions of faith or answer why something is done the way it is in a denomination or congregation when the Bible says to do it another way, and why they even shut down those who dare to ask the hard questions. Read more…

Today, thanks to brow-beating by non-believers, Christians think love equates to “polite nicety”. Discipline, correction and justice take a back seat to being just nice. So you get troublemakers in congregations who go on year after year because no one has the spiritual backbone to demand a stop to the injustice of gossip, manipulation and people who insist on “being in charge”.

I read the Bible to say that if I really love people two things show up: Read more…

It doesn’t matter how many times I read it, or in how many places in the Bible (and there are a lot), I am flabbergasted at the reaction of the religious elite to Good News. Here’s another case in point: Read more…