Tag: god
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French Fries
I like to keep a clean office. There’s something about walking in to the place where you work knowing where things will be and not having to crawl over piles of paper to find what you need. One way a person can figure out my stress level is to look at the state of my…
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Anchors
Sometimes in ministry I get the question about the chaos that Christians face. In the examples I’m thinking about, the person wonders if sin that they’ve committed has caused God to bring judgment down upon them. They then wonder at the passage that says there’s now “no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus,”…
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Hotels and Swamps
Ever visit a swamp? There’s kind of a creepy quality to it. While everything is green and vibrant, there can be a kind of stillness that unsettles. It’s not particularly the stillness or the quiet, but rather the fact that with all the green around we know there’s something living under that water, and that…
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Reflect
As we near the end of the summer, I wondered at a certain word: Reflect. In particular the context of this question came from me challenging my staff from Psalm 90:12: “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” It was a reminder to consider the great opportunities…
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“I Missed the Moment”
“I missed the moment.” Currently I’m listening to the book Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. I generally love the craziness that expresses itself through Russian writing, and especially how writers like Dostoevsky weave philosophy, spirituality, and creative thinking into their stories. The above quote comes from a passage where a demon (or the devil…book’s not very…
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Sometimes Backstage is the Darkest
Charles Spurgeon wrote in his Lectures to His Students an entire session on something he called the Minister’s “Fainting Fits.” It occupies the 11th lecture. I paused when I read that, thinking, “What does that mean?” While Spurgeon was partly referring to a lack of physical strength and weakness, in a greater fashion “fainting fits”…
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Pray for Rain
About a decade ago, there was an interesting phenomenon happening in Austin. We had been locked in a terrible drought and our local reservoirs were approaching and sometimes below 30%. There were widespread brushfires that afflicted Central Texas communities. Businesses near lake areas were shuttering. All in all, not a great time. The phenomenon that…
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Paper Pillars
I was thinking today on the nature of Institution. Our world is filled with them, from churches to governments to schools to friend groups. It is our nature to establish relationships and pathways that last, to make tracks on the world that others will follow. But in thinking about institutions today, I remembered the Spirit…
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Scars and Shorelines
What does revival look like in a believer’s life? At a recent youth camp, the idea was posed to us of “returning to the way things used to be” with regard to our faith. That statement made me pause…Is that a true goal? Should we desire to return to some previous form of faith and…
And yet, and yet... 