"new life" Tagged Touchpoints
God’s Love Burns
“Branches are connected to the vine and they abide together. Fecundity is the intimacy of abiding with the vine and each other. The vine is rooted in love below the earth, in what is called the rootstalk. It is the source of all growth and renewal. Branches cannot renew themselves separately from the vine and rootstalk. No wonder Jesus says, ‘Apart from God, we can do nothing.'”
Ollie, Ollie, Oxen Free
“My belief is not in my own belief, and my faith is not in my own faith. My belief and faith are in God. Everything else is idolatry. Idolatry in my ability to believe. Idolatry in my own faith. With this kind of idolatry, I end up worshipping my belief. I end up worshipping my faith. Rather than the one who is Resurrection and who is Life.”
Stumped
“In a strange way, my two favorite seasons of the church year are Advent and Lent. I’m not sure what that says about me, but I think I like them because, for me, they are the most honest. They ask me to take a hard look at my life and my world. They don’t let me skim over or pass by the pain in my life or the lives of others. They call me to an honest accounting of myself and my society. And they call me to get back to the source, the root of life. And bear life-giving fruit.”
Limping Along
“You know, if I ever started another church, maybe I would name it the “World Wrestling Federation Lutheran Church.” And my benediction every Sunday would be, “Let’s get ready to Rumble!!!””
Forgiveness Leads to Repentance
“But here’s the thing. We don’t need to run and hide like Adam and Eve. We don’t need to live in fear and dread. We know what kind of God we have. We know whether God, at God’s core, is forgiving or vengeful.”
Wounded Touch
“You see, the problem may not be that people don’t want to belong to the church. The problem may just be that the church doesn’t want to belong to the Christ. Perhaps we’ve been so busy worshipping Jesus we’ve forgotten to follow him.”
Getting Rid of the Bubble Wrap
“This is a text to read when it feels like the world is crashing down around us, when our minds are too jaded and our spirits too discouraged to see how God may be present in our current darkness. This is the passage to read when we come face to face with the mess we as humans have made of our relationships and of this world, when we recognize how profoundly broken and how incapable of fixing ourselves we are. For it is in this place of helplessness and disorientation that hope emerges.”
Happy Birthday!
“You see, creation never stops. Life and death and birth are a continuous reality in our lives and the life of the world. Life is a gift, not a possession, and it’s given daily.”
The Other Side of the Storm
And perhaps that can give us a different perspective on the disciple’s cry, “Do you not care that we are about to perish?” The disciple’s cry speaks to more than a storm on a lake. It is the cry of all who go with Jesus, who follow Jesus to the other side. And while Jesus does calm the storm, perhaps their perishing is exactly what needs to happen.