It has been more and more clear that no congregation is more renewed than its people. That’s because people are the church! The more spiritually attuned and grounded the members of any congregation are, the more likely they are to not just pursue what they want but rather discern what ...

Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” John 9:3 We often wonder about the problems in our lives. Some seem to be caused by things we do or don’t do. They are our fault. Other ...

“Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” John 7:38 Christian faith is often thought of as agreeing with certain doctrines. We say things like the Apostles’ Creed and if we believe the things in the list then we are a Christian. Understood in that way, being ...

See Jesus – Glimpse God Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. (John 5:19) The verse above is in response to Jesus being ...

“Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” John 4:29 The above quote was made by an outcast woman who met Jesus while getting water at a well on the outskirts of town. She would come at noon ...

Martin Luther called this verse “the gospel in a nutshell.” What he meant was that if there was any single sentence that captures the nature of God, this verse gets the job done. There are many things in this that help us to understand the nature of God and guide us ...

Justice Matters to Jesus He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”  John 2:17 We often think about Jesus as healer, teacher, savior,… In all these things Jesus takes the problems that he encounters and fixes them ...

Are You Paying Attention? “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, at Cana in Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” John 2:11 “Give me a sign,” we often say. Dried up and tired we wonder if God is paying attention to our circumstances and if ...

The Call to Transformation A skeptic once said, “Jesus came proclaiming the Kingdom of God and all he ended up with was the church.” What he meant was that the vision Jesus has is often not seen in the lives of the people who claim to follow Jesus. This week’s ...

“When King Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.” Matthew 2:16 One ...

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. John 1:1 Both Jews and Christians have ways of understanding God that include God speaking and things happening. God’s announcement is the starting point for God’s work unfolding. It starts in the Bible ...