Category Archives: Faith & Witness

Man Paper Bag Cover Face Ashamed Portrait Concept

What’s It to Me?

I am a white, straight male. I have two children and one grandchild. I’ve been married to the same woman for almost twenty-seven years now, and if we both live long enough, we will most likely celebrate our golden anniversary together. No, I am not

Stained glass window image of Jesus

Becoming a New Creation in Christ

When once you have accepted the Jesus Christ Message, nothing is ever the same again. All values change radically. The things that one spent time and energy in striving for are felt to be no longer worth the having, while other things that one passed

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A New Creation, Make It So!

There are unchurched people who fear becoming a new creation in Christ because they think if they adopt Christian behavior they won’t be able to have any more fun. Those of us living a Christ-filled life know better. But Christians have gotten a bad rap

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Life in the Brave New World of Jesus

When I was at the seminary, a team of students did interviews with people who had made “decisions for Christ” in a local evangelistic crusade in Kentucky. They also interviewed others who knew the recent converts. To their surprise they found that the most common

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Learning To Fly: A Meditation on Change

I would like to take you with me in spirit to a place in South Africa called the Karoo. This is an arid and somewhat inhospitable world – its hot, semi-desert conditions stretch for many miles in every direction. Tall, silent mountains keep watch over

Stained glass window image of Jesus

Just As We Are

Do we really need to become a new creation in Christ? Is there a need to change who we are? Some writers suggest that to become a new creation in Christ we need to change. Note there is always an emphasis that ‘we’ need to

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Black, Gay and Spiritual

To know Jesus with all my heart and to seek his blessed face with my soul; to understand his life and how he lives in me; to be pleasing before his sight; and for him to one day call me home and say, “well done,

Dove flying in Lisbon, Portugal

Flexing Our Spiritual Muscles

Our lives are filled with learning experiences. Just as a baby learns to walk by repeatedly attempting these new movements and actions, so we, passing through a variety of experiences move closer toward being perfected spiritually. Perhaps the reason “crisis” was chosen to describe this

Dove flying in Lisbon, Portugal

Grace: Amazing, Isn’t It?

What does grace say to you? Not me, not the person, but the religious concept. Wait, you say, I’m not a theologian. I don’t care about the ins and outs of a religious theory. Well, I didn’t either, until I started really studying this subject

Dove flying in Lisbon, Portugal

The Father

Suppose, I was a king and I went out and adopted 10 children. I chose them and brought them into my house, they are my children. I bestowed upon them every gift in my kingdom. I poured out my love on each of them equally.