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
Category Archives: Faith & Witness
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,
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
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
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.
Blaine
I have watched the waves break against the side of the ship, sending up rainbows of colors. I have watched porpoises playing in the sea. I have seen young couples stroll hand and hand under the light of the full moon as the ship glides
Coming Out and Coming Home
I came out as a lesbian in September of 1992. The next month, I came out as a Christian at my local MCC. I never fit in. My whole life, I thought that there was something wrong with me. I always felt detached, as though
My Story
I grew up in a Southern Baptist home and church in South Carolina, a small town with cotton mills and a Presbyterian college. My parents taught me by example the family values of love, respect for all people, kindness, generosity, truth telling, fairness, self respect,
The Spiritual Crisis of Coming Out
A few weeks ago, as I prepared my sermon for Palm Sunday, it occurred to me that the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem was, in a sense a “coming out” for Jesus. Having previously downplayed and hushed his identity as the promised Messiah (though
My Death
I don’t know how to start. Back then I didn’t know how to make it end. I truly wanted it all to end; the pain, the confusion, the loneliness was all unbearable and yet I kept bearing it till I felt like there was no