pain ⁽⁹¹⁾

Psalm 22:25–31; Amos 8:1–7; Acts 8:1b–8 For many people, singing in worship of God is a significant part of their life of faith. They love the joy-filled worship of God. The image provided in Amos takes those joy-filled songs and turns them into songs of…

Psalm 118:1–2, 14–24; Genesis 1:20–2:4a; 1 Corinthians 15:50–58 God created humanity in God’s own image. When we read Paul, it may be easy to conclude that this is only a spiritual image. In many respects, it is indeed a spiritual image. On the other hand,…

Exodus 12:1–4, 5–10, 11–14; Psalm 116:1–2, 12–19; 1 Corinthians 11:23–26; John 13:1–17, 31b–35 The tie between Passover and the Last Supper is obvious just based on the fact that the Last Supper was in the context of Passover. Part of the first Passover was the…

Isaiah 42:1–9; Psalm 36:5–11; Hebrews 9:11–15; John 12:1–11 Yesterday, we celebrated Palm Sunday. The Messiah, no, the King, no, God (!) entered Jerusalem! At churches around the world, children paraded waving palm branches. The triumphant entry is a big thing! I remember being part of…

Jeremiah 30:12–22; John 12:36–43 Perhaps this has been said before, but an important lesson learned through Celebrate Recovery was, “hurt people hurt people.” When people are hurting, they lash out. Sometimes the pain is stress. Often it is thousands of little things (and sometimes only…