The celebration of Easter gives us Christians a glimpse into the reality of a restored and reconciled creation. Our missional privilege is to participate with heaven in self-sacrificially ushering in the present and future reality of God’s great gathering Kingdom in a soon-to-be transfigured earth.Read More
So, we wait and we pray. God willing, our grandbaby will arrive in a week or two. But our hope and expectation nonetheless is necessarily in God alone. According to St. Augustine, patient, persistent and attentive prayer primarily expands our hearts and “exercises our desires” to receive the ultimate good that God has for us.Read More
I have prepared a daily devotional guide for use during the season of Lent. This year’s guide contains all new material, and references John Bunyan’s classic allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress. You can learn more about the book and purchase it at the website of the First Presbyterian Church of Orlando.Read More
Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of the season of Lent. Lent is forty-seven days set aside for letting God renew us through self-denial and self-examination, casting off those habits and practices which lead to less than favorable results, and taking on those habits and practices that contribute to our spiritual, social and even physical...Read More
One of the ways we observe the holy season of Advent, preparing for the birth of Jesus, is by taking time each day to be with God. I have written an Advent devotional guide to use daily during the season to remind you that Emmanuel means “God with us.” You can learn more about the...Read More
Advent emphasizes what has been described by theologians as the "already, but not yet," the time between the first and second comings of Jesus, between the Kingdom unveiled and the Kingdom fulfilled. In a sense, the "already but not yet" is also the time between our own births and deaths.Read More
I have published a family devotional guide for Advent, the season of anticipation of and preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ. The daily material begins with Sunday, December 1 and actually runs all the way through the Feast of Epiphany (January 6). You can learn more about the book and purchase it at the...Read More
A year ago during Lent, I memorized the “Exsultet” the mid-1st millennium-chant that opens the Saturday night Easter Vigil service. Ever since, I have found myself constantly ruminating over the Exsultet’s profound words of hope.Read More
He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. Luke 1:51-53 (ESV) This coming fourth...Read More
It is significant, I think, to note that both the liturgical and contemporary movements, out of opposite histories, recognized the need to prioritize worship as the first thing—or at least, one of the firsts among several equals—that the church must be about. Worship is a first, because it is a source from which the mission...Read More
