The Temple of the Son

Near the end of Ezekiel, the prophet has a vision of God’s glory returning to a restored temple (Ezek. 43:5).  He has no vision of the temple being built; it is already built–without hands.  As the temple’s design is unfolded to Ezekiel, he sees that the altar lies at the center of the temple.  The…

These Are the Wounds

For Good Friday, I wanted to share the words of a song the Lord gave me years ago. These are the wounds that I received in the house of my friends who turned against me. He with whom I ate bread has lifted his hand against me, and I am lonely. But the Spirit of…

Fact & Fiction

The fiction: Trying circumstances, instability within or without, personal failure, weakness, a lack of spiritual discipline, temptation, and the devil can separate us from God. The fact: “Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: Because of You we are being put…

Jesus Done Got Hitched

Comic by Chan Lowe So maybe you heard: Some scholar says Jesus may have had a wife.  I won’t bore you by rehashing a debate that amounts to nothing.  You can read about it yourself if you want. Big, fat zero or not, I felt annoyed when I first read about it.  Once again, non-Christians are…

Hard Pressed but Not Crushed

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also…

David & Michal

One of the high points of King David’s reign was when he brought the ark into Jerusalem.  Priests carried the ark into the city of David.  Wearing a linen ephod (priestly boxers), David danced and leapt around worshiping with abandon.  The people blew the top off the city with shouts, praises, and trumpet blasts.  It was…

The Only Truth I Know

Simon & Garfunkel “I stand alone without beliefs.  The only truth I know is you.” —Paul Simon, “Kathy’s Song” Paul Simon wrote the above lyric for a woman.  “Kathy’s Song” is a love song par excellance.  Yet every time I hear this line from the song, I cannot help but think of the Lord.  Over…

The Seventh Day

“God Resting on the Seventh Day” (19th Century German Engraving) This is the account of the heavens and the earth in the day when they were created. Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha),…

That which Flows

Sketch by Patrick Murphy: http://inspiredsketch.blogspot.com/ That which flows forever from the extremities and from the guts of the wounded cosmos sustains That which flows forever from the memory and from the friction of the nail against the flesh of love remains That which flowed with the anguished cries and with the salty sweat of a man…

Arise!

The following is a poem made by splicing Song of Songs 2:10-13, John 5:25-26, and John 11:25. *** My lover spoke and said to me, “I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will…