Bringing the Word to Life

Good Friday: The News Business vs. the Gospel Project

Leave a Comment / Colossians, Current Events, Lent, The Missional Church / By /

Today is Good Friday, the most solemn day of remembrance in the entire church year. On this day we recall the aftermath of Jesus’ betrayal by one of the twelve, his sham of a trial, his suffering, and his crucifixion in public view just outside the walls of Jerusalem. For secular types in-the-know, Jesus’ appearance for judgment was an uncomfortable intrusion on their “live and let live” policy toward the Jews. For the Jewish elite in Jerusalem, Jesus’ latest offenses—including the raising of Lazarus (John 11) and his claim to deity at the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7-8) for instance—were […]

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Colossians 4:3-4: Pray That I May Speak Clearly!

5 Comments / Colossians, Current Events, The Missional Church / By /

You might call me a news junkie. In a day’s time, I hear four radio newscasts, read the morning newspaper, catch a few articles from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or something else linked by the daily Church and the World news compendium. I read TIME Magazine cover-to-cover every week, watch the Nightly News on TV, 60 Minutes on Sunday night, and occasionally while I am sewing turn on BBC World News or the PBS News Hour. I am now sick of it. I am sick of the repetition of news stories, looking for new angles, new sensations,

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Colossians 4:2-6: Stay Awake! Keep Praying!

2 Comments / Colossians, Current Events, Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, Marriage Definition, Personal, Spiritual Disciplines, The Church in Exile, Uncategorized / By /

2Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone. I have been a morning person my whole life. In the evenings we have a family rule, “No

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Observations of a Newborn

1 Comment / Grandparenting, Personal / By /

It is good to be back with you again after a little break. Midday on Friday, March 13, we got the call that our daughter Katy had started labor. By three o’clock we were on the road in our 24-foot sprinter van RV, packed and equipped for a week-long stay. After an overnight in Oregon, we arrived at Swedish Hospital in Seattle to meet our first grandchild, a girl named Eleanor (Elly), less than eleven hours after her birth. I do not want to resort to clichés about her beauty, perfection, cuteness, or any other accolade attributed to newborns. She

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I’m Going to Be a Grandma

3 Comments / Personal / By /

Just got word that our older daughter has started labor, so the birth of our first grandchild is imminent. I have been rooting for Pi Day all week; could we be so fortunate? If this goes long enough, we will have a “once in a century” baby! While doing Nana duty, I will be working with my other daughter, who is first round editor of my book, Slaying the Beast: A Spiritual Journal Through Lung Cancer, which I “finished” (ha-ha) yesterday.  We will be working on it for two weeks, so during that time you will not be hearing from

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Colossians 1–3: Apprenticeship to Jesus

3 Comments / Colossians, Marriage Curriculum, Personal, Uncategorized / By /

Colossians 4:1 is a good place to pause for a bit of a review in our study of Paul’s letter to the Colossians. After a splendid introduction to Jesus Christ— his primacy, his deity, and his presence—Paul makes the case in chapter 2 that Christians enjoy a particular freedom. This liberty is not license to do whatever one pleases, but practical freedom from human regulations (like the Jewish Law) and secular humanistic philosophies. Life in Christ gives a person the opportunity to enjoy the freedom to do good without the lead weight of counterfeit wisdom or spiritual OCD (2:23). A

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Colossians 3:22–4:1: Lessons for Workers and Employers

Leave a Comment / Church, Colossians, It All Started in the Garden, Uncategorized / By /

A few years ago, in response to the drought conditions then (a chronic problem in California), we re-landscaped our front yard. It involved replacing our driveway and putting in a new walkway directly from the street to our front door. Things were torn up for weeks, but on concrete pouring day everybody’s spirits lifted. A crew of skilled laborers congregated in the middle of the now excavated dirt pathway for the 7 a.m. briefing. With water and tools at the ready, the team turned to welcome the big cement truck of your dreams, and an amazing procedure unfolded. Given wet

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Colossians 3:20-21: Family Lessons

1 Comment / Church, Colossians, Marriage Curriculum, Personal / By /

20Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. 21Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged. Remembering that these two verses follow Paul’s exhortation to the church as a whole, it is a wonderful thing the apostle recognizes: children are a part of the church family, too. Previously, husband and wife were urged to demonstrate to each other the quality of relationship that is to pervade the church. Here, too, we see that children (and their parents) have a special responsibility even as they are given the privilege of participation in the household of

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Colossians 3:19: Marriage Lessons, for Husbands

1 Comment / Colossians, Lung Cancer, Marriage Curriculum, Naegeli's Laws, Personal / By /

As we anticipate our 40th wedding anniversary in June, Andy and I recall one story we would just as soon forget. But because it holds a good lesson, we share it: About three years into our marriage, Andy and I decided to take our first backpack trip together. It was a trail to Stanford Lakes in the Sierra Nevada. It must have been in the 8,000 to 9,000 ft. elevation range. What I remember is how out-of-breath I was and so tired I could not make it up this one hill. Andy, up ahead, was getting frustrated that my pace

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Colossians 3:18: Marriage Lessons, for Wives

5 Comments / Church, Colossians, It All Started in the Garden, Marriage Curriculum / By /

As we come to the Apostle Paul’s very brief instruction on marriage, there is one point to be made in general. Whatever Paul has been teaching up to this point has direct application at home as well as the church. In one sense, the household is a mini-church, a community of believers centered on Jesus Christ. I picture this centeredness with the following analogy: Imagine a Chinese acrobat who spins a plate on the tip of a pole. Imagine that pole extending all the way through the plate to become the axis around which it spins. Think about your plate—your

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