(The following is excerpted from my booklet, “The Consummation of All Things in Christ: Ephesians Chapters 1-4“) *** “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and…
Category: New Testament
Resurrection Wounds
Recently, I mentioned I’m a fan of the Lord of the Rings books and movies. In the first book/movie, Frodo comes into possession of a magic ring. This ring is so powerful it controls all other magic rings in middle-earth. The ring’s original owner, Sauron, learns Frodo has the ring and sends a group of…
A Daunting Love
Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another (1 John 4:10-11). As I read these verses today, I found myself overwhelmed by my…
Death!
Image from Lord of the Rings: Return of the King I love the book and movie series, Lord of the Rings. LOTR’s author, JRR Tolkien, was Catholic. The world of LOTR is deeply imbued with Christian realities. One of my favorite moments occurs in the third installment, Return of the King. A hoarde of orcs and other…
The Cut Flower of Creation
Photo by Carrie McKamey Recently, a friend asked me to read Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si: On Care of Our Common Home. In it, the Pope lays out his views “on the environment and human ecology.” A great deal of the discussion centers on human-caused climate change. Pope Francis intricately explores the environmental and social ramifications…
Celebrating “In”-dependence
Sketch by Patrick Murphy With the Fourth of July just past, we have ringing in our ears and independence on our minds. National memory makes independence a chief value for Americans. Our sense of freedom is rooted in each person’s right to live as they see fit. The classic “American Dream” is to achieve…
Babylon Is Fallen!
We are going through Revelation in church. Last week we started chapter 17 about Babylon, “the notorious prostitute” John sees riding on the back of a scarlet beast (Rev. 17:3). John is told this whore “has an empire over the kings of the earth” (Rev. 17:18). The fact she rides the beast emphasizes this–the beast…
The Holy Pigeon
Years ago, when I read about the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus during His baptism, I imagined it like this: A sparkling white dove wreathed in sunbeams came down through the clouds at escalator speed, wings flashing up and down in slow motion. It was a glorious, calendar-worthy, photo-op moment. All of that changed one…
Limping Along
Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. What the law could not do since it was limited by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His Son…
The Biggest Small Word
“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ….” (1 Peter 1:1) “Of” is a mighty word in scripture. It can show source–something that originates in something else and shares its nature, substance, reality. Ownership is another connotation. “Of” also suggests “from”; coming in another’s stead and on their authority. Such big ideas in such a little word!…
The Voice of One 