Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of a season in the Church called “Lent” that runs for the 40 days (excluding Sundays) leading up to Easter. Though practiced by Christians for centuries, Lent can be confusing and opaque, and may leave you wondering, “What is Lent really about anyway?”
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In Luke 15 we find Jesus explaining three parables to the crowds. The parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. After the shepherd finds his sheep, the woman finds her coin, and the father receives his lost son back into his arms, there is great rejoicing.
Read MoreAs I write this, I’m feeling what I imagine many of you are feeling as well, kind of hopeless. Not inspired or optimistic, tiptoeing our way through 2021. I have a lot to be thankful for but it is easy to forget all of that with the flurry of activity that seems to be shot out of the social media firehose every day. And then I read Luke 14 and was thinking about the man Jesus healed.
Read MoreWe start our devotional today with Luke 14:1-24, where Jesus speaks about feasts and banquets! I know that Christmas & New Year’s celebrations looked very different for us due to the pandemic! Oh how we long to be invited again to each other’s homes to share a feast around the table!
Read MoreToday my wife is scheduled to be induced into labor for our first child, and as I’m considering what life is going to be like as a father, I can’t help but think about what I was like as a kid. I was the youngest of five - two half siblings, a foster sister and a full brother - and with that amount of chaos in the house my Dad didn’t have enough time to explain his reasonings for everything.
Read MoreWhen I read in Luke 12 about the crowd that came to see Jesus, described in The Message as unwieldy and stepping on each other’s toes, I can’t help but contrast this scene with the one that took place in Washington, D.C. last week. In the NIV translation, they are trampling on one another. Sound familiar?
Read MoreIn the last year, I have been wrestling with God. I was not wrestling with Him about larger belief questions but rather, in all honesty, centered around why my life has felt and been so hard for so long.
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