“And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” (Mark 1:35) You know that time of day when the sun is just getting ready to rise, and the reds and oranges fill the sky, giving a golden cast onto everything around …
Mark 4:35-41, Jesus Stills a Storm On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat …
Today is my wedding anniversary. My husband and I got married 18 years ago, on our kid’s first birthday. Which also means my kid is turning 19 today. Wow. So family, and the idea of family, is on my mind right now. There’s this story about Jesus and family that I always thought was kinda …
Today is Trinity Sunday; the day in the Western Christian calendar where we celebrate the three “persons” of God. Traditionally these are referred to as Father, Son, and Spirit (but I’d love to play around sometime with non-traditional representations of the Trinity). I have mentioned before the not-so-tongue-in-cheek descriptions of Trinity as “two White dudes …
We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not …
This painting is by a follower of Hieronymus Bosch, and anyone who is familiar with Bosch’s work will immediately recognize the very…Boschesque…subject matter and style. The subject is the Irish knight Tundale’s vision of a trip through heaven and hell and depicts the souls of the damned, tormented because of the sins that they committed in the Earth.
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s….the Holy Spirit? While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and …
We don’t see icons too often in Western Christian churches. The use of icons in worship is something that our Protestant churches lost in the split from the Catholic church – although “lost” might be the wrong word for it. To say you lost something implies a sort of passivity. But the lack of icons in Protestant churches was quite purposeful.
The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Psalm 118:22, and referenced in Acts 4:5-12 So, what is a cornerstone? Most simply, it is the first stone that is laid down in constructing the foundation of a building. And…wait for it….it’s in the corner. But this stone has become imbued with so …
Have you ever thought about the sheer intimacy of Jesus’ appearance to the disciples post-resurrection? In Matthew they take hold of his feet. In John, Jesus tells Thomas “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side” (John 20:27). In the Luke account, he says to …