Words and Confessions

Words.  Twenty-six letters in our alphabet.  They can be arranged to create a nursery rhyme or great works like Shakespeare produced.  Letters can be put together in such a way as to inspire, or to criticize, to convey truth, or to spread falsehood.   In the very beginning, the world came into existence with words, God’s words.  The nothingness became …

Servant First

“Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, …” (2 Peter 1:1) I once heard a seminary professor say to “always look at the greeting” in the Epistles of Scripture.  How the apostles addressed their audience was important.  Reading the Apostle Peter’s second letter recently, I noticed this – he identified himself first by …

When We Worship

“And they worshipped him, but some doubted” (Matthew 28:17). The Bible tells us that after the resurrection of Jesus, his appearance was changed.  We can imagine a glorified body that had been through death and then resurrected victorious by God the Father would have been transformed from its former state.  Whatever one believes about the …

Live Out Love

“I will show you a still more excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31). If you have trusted in Christ, then you are a part of his Body.  Like our physical bodies, this Body has many parts, but all function together, each doing its job.  If one member suffers, all suffer together.  This is easy to understand …

Parent or Guardian Required

Forms are a part of life, beginning in childhood.  I remember all the school and medical forms of various kinds which had to be signed “by parent or guardian.”  I think being adopted must have made me more sensitive to the distinction between parent and guardian, and I remember the feeling of discomfort that some …