Pur Love

  No, the title isn’t a misspelling. I know you want it to say, “Pure Love,” and it kind of does. Our word, “pure,” comes from the Greek word, “pur.” But “pur” doesn’t mean, “pure;” it’s Greek for “fire.” When I speak of “pur love,” I’m talking about love that cleanses through burning – love …

Apocalyptic Family

I’ve been reflecting on the mission of John the Baptist this morning and specifically the prophecy about his ministry to families. Here it is: “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” …

Other Side of the Coin

2012 was the perfect year for our family to go to Disney together. With twelve years between our firstborn and “the baby,” Jamie and I had reckoned that there’d be a narrow window when Caleb was still young enough to enjoy it with us and when Lydia would be old enough to remember it. Somehow, …

Living The Life

Why do people acquire more than they need? Why do we rob our children of an inheritance, ourselves of time, and God’s people of our help by going into debt? What do we hope our cavernous dwellings will give us, but emptiness. What can our toys offer, but distraction? We buy what we don’t need …

Motive Matters

In Paul’s day, the church in Rome struggled with disunity over whether Christians could eat meat from animals which had been sacrificed to idols. We might tend to minimize this issue since it’s something that we don’t struggle with, but for diaspora Jews it was deadly serious. They saw themselves as acting in the tradition …

While It’s Called “Today”

Nobody wakes up one morning to discover they no longer trust in Christ. Departure from the Way happens through a slow process of compromise and justification. A well-meaning Christ follower might tell a white lie “for the greater good” and then find that she has to tell several more to cover the first one. In …