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Standing “in” the gospel, not “on” issues

We are living in an era of great upheaval and confusion. Sven Birkerts, a perceptive literary critic, said:We are living in a society and culture that [are] in dissolution. Pack this paragraph with your own headlines about crime, eroded values, educational decline,...

Notes on Curing and Healing

There is an important distinction between curing and healing. Curing is the great gift that sometimes comes to us from God through medical care, the love and suppot of others, and the mystery of prayer. We recover: the cancer goes into remission; blood begins to flow...

An Almost Right Word and the Right Word

Mark Twain once said that the difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between lighting and a lighting bug. The church is committed to the right words, lighting-flash words which illumine the mind, captivate the imagination, touch...

The Good News of Jesus

Tonight, at our Deacons’ meeting, I offered a brief description of my understanding of “evangelism.” I’m posting part of what I said here.Evangelism is the process of saying and showing the good news of Jesus in such a way that people (1)...

The Story We Need

Lily, the central character in Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees, was haunted by the story of her young childhood, a story that included violence, abuse, and a tragic accident with a gun, an accident that killed her mother. By a strange but providential...

Friends and Partners in God’s Work

One of the most astonishing things Jesus ever said is found in John 15: “I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have...