church (395)

Ian

Clean Up

Zechariah 3:1–10; Matthew 9:1–8; Revelation 22:7–17 Most parents have to tell their children to clean their rooms. There are those rare exceptional (weird) children who clean up their rooms on their own. There are also those parents who have conditioned their children to behave in…

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Ian

Holy Grounding

Exodus 3:2–6; Exodus 20:22–26; 2 Chronicles 3:1–2 (read online ⧉) The concept of "holy ground" has a long-standing history. In popular imagination, church buildings and their lands are—by their very nature—holy ground. Whether it was vampires (or other unholy creatures) or Immortals (e.g., Connor MacLeod)…

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Ian

Foot Care

John 17:1–11; Ephesians 1:17–23 (read online ⧉) I thought how ironic it was that I’d dismissed dog meat as a cultural idiosyncrasy in Vietnam; that “who I am to judge?” extended to Islamic laws in Uzbekistan and Buddhist temple restrictions in Cambodia, but not to…

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Ian

Believing Works

John 14:6–21; John 21:24–25 (read online ⧉) Often, we operate as if following Jesus is just the thing to do. If you were raised in the church, as a (at least a theoretical) Christian, the “Jesus” and “Christian” thing "sort of" happens. It is a…

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Ian

Waiting in Trust

John 16:5–15; Acts 1:1–8 (read online ⧉) Wait for the promise to be fulfilled. Jesus directed his disciples to wait. They couldn’t even wait when Jesus was with them after the Resurrection. “Hey, Jesus, are we going to take over the world, now?” Of course,…

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