Category: forgiveness
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The law that sets you free
(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.) “So whatever you say and whatever you do, remember that you will be judged by the law that sets you free” (James 2:12). The law that sets you free? That’s a strange law. Laws don’t normally set us free. They do the opposite. They enslave…
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Lessons in seeing people
(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.) When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Matthew 9:36 If we ever needed an example of what it means to stand in some else’s shoes and see what they see, hear…
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639-year Concert
(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.) Time is an ocean, but it ends at the shore. – Bob Dylan There is a live concert going on right now being performed at this very moment on a special organ built just for this purpose in a medieval church in Halberstadt, Germany. This…
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Where grace meets disgrace
And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. Hebrews 13:12-13 What happened? According to this verse there is something disgraceful about meeting Jesus outside the camp. Did we miss something? Do you feel like you…
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Breaking camp
We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. Hebrews 13:10 An altar is a place of slaughter. The lamb or bull that was brought in as a sacrifice for sin would be slain on the altar and the blood was spread around in various places as the…
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The rainbow and the saguaro
Chandler and I are making our way home today from Tucson, Arizona where we have been visiting this weekend with one of our Vanguard members, Mike High. Mike is a career Air Force fighter pilot and instructor, and Chandler has recently been looking into the Air Force as a possible career. We came to spend…
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The ‘Grace Turned Outward’ test
We’ve been forgiven, so we forgive. We’ve been loved, so we love. We’ve been freely accepted, so we accept others freely. We’ve been given mercy, so we are merciful. We have escaped judgment, so we do not judge. We’ve been welcomed in, so we welcome all. The door was opened for us, so we left…
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Who are we all in this together with?
And suddenly there was with me An ocean of humanity A sea of many faces In waves of warm embraces And while I questioned how to judge them all Who would rise and who would fall I found myself among them And it mattered little who was wrong or right …
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Marti’s Thanksgiving Day message
On this side of eternity, we have been asking each other, “When is the church really a church?” Is it a church when it is gathering on Sunday morning, or is it still a church when it is scattered out in the highways and byways, in homes or throughout the Internet? If you think, as many…
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A soldier’s cross
Maybe you remember it when this story first came out almost 10 years ago — the photograph of a wooden cross strangely draped with a military dog tag and a purple vestment and crowned with an army helmet. It was a memorial to Captain Dale Goetz, a chaplain in the US Army who was killed…
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‘ALL HAVE SINNED’
The sign inside the historic Church of the Open Door, once in downtown Los Angeles, is remarkable if you think about how many churches would be willing to put “ALL HAVE SINNED” over the front of their church. Think of what that would do for people visiting. Think of what that would do for the…
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A Good Friday Prayer in a Pandemic
Our Father who art in heaven: Here on earth it’s gotten pretty rough. Your name is still hallowed, but we have lots of questions. It’s hard to find You when there’s so much suffering and death going on. We know Your kingdom is come, but it’s hard to figure out how Your will is being…