Tucked tightly between the passage about Jesus’ healing the man with the withered hand and the calling of the twelve apostles is a seemingly modest account of a great crowd coming to Jesus for physical healing. Read carefully what Mark has penned about this particular moment in Jesus’ remarkable life: Jesus withdrew with his disciples READ MORE
Jerusalem
Your King is Coming!
Five hundred and forty years before the first Easter a prophet named Zechariah captured the attention of God’s people, speaking directly into their vulnerabilities, fears and brokenness. After seventy years of exile within the high walls of a brutal empire, the Jewish people had been released to return to their ancient homeland and its capital, READ MORE
Make Way for the Kings and Queens
This time of year the headlines are full of familiar references to churches and those who claim to follow Christ. There will be stories about “pilgrims” making their way to Bethlehem, the “faithful” flocking into the Vatican, and “believers” gathering for Christmas Eve in churches aplenty. Within the musty corridors of numerous tiny churches scattered READ MORE
Sandy Hook Elementary and the Tower of Siloam
A dark night has come and gone since the horrid massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary. My own numbness continues, as I am sure does yours. I cannot help but note the weird irony that yesterday morning, early, I posted on my Facebook page how overwhelmed I am that my own precious girls are no longer READ MORE
“With You I Am Well Pleased”
When was the last time you really, truly felt loved and appreciated? Like you were special? That someone, anyone, really delighted in . . . well . . . you? The ancient Israelites wrestled with these questions. They felt forgotten. Abandoned. Lost and desperate. Isaiah 63:19 gives a hint of this, at which place their READ MORE
A Call to Follow
“We walk the same road.” These five words could have solemnly been offered by Mark, the writer of the second gospel narrative found in the New Testament, to the frantic Christians coming to him for help because of the persecution they faced in Rome. “We walk the same road . . . the road Jesus READ MORE