Providing for Us
Read: Ephesians 1:3-12 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing. (v. 3) On the other end of the phoneline was someone deeply hurting, another story of harm caused by the egregious behavior of a church leader. Calls like this were not new […]
Giving Us the Spirit
Read: John 20:19-23 He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (v. 22) Leaves blew and trees swayed in the brisk wind outside. An abandoned plastic bag danced across the open clearing, swirling high and dropping low. I thought of the breath of God’s Spirit, often compared to wind. It’s a mystery, […]
Risen for Us!
Read: Luke 24:1-11 Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. (vv. 5-6) Many years ago, my then toddler asked, “Where is God?” I responded that God doesn’t live in one place; God is everywhere all at once. He promptly sat down hard on his bed, and said, […]
The Main Event
Read: Matthew 28:1-15 Dead people don’t rise. Jesus’ resurrection is the most consequential event in history. How you respond to it is the most consequential decision of your life. At the site of Jesus’ resurrection, everyone had the same reaction: fear. Who wouldn’t? The brilliance of an angel rolling back a stone causing an earthquake […]
When God is Silent
Read: Matthew 27:57-66 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb. (v. 61) Sometimes God seems silent. A dream is crushed. A loved one dies. A diagnosis disrupts. What do we do when God is silent? Nowhere does God seem more absent than the Saturday of Holy Week. Our Lord was dead. […]
What the Women Saw
Read: Matthew 27:32-56 There were also many women there, looking on from a distance. (v. 55) I imagine the women “looking on from a distance” (v. 55) with hands covering mouths and eyes scarcely able to take in the scene. Matthew’s account offers a panoramic masterpiece with exquisite detail. We can look at it a thousand times […]
Let Us Keep the Feast
Read: Matthew 26:26-29 Take, eat; this is my body. (v. 26) As a child, I didn’t especially enjoy Communion celebrations. The service grew long, the liturgy went over my head, and children couldn’t participate. I was glad we only celebrated four times a year. As an adult, I have learned to rejoice with words from the […]
Tutoring Centers for Children in India
As Words of Hope team members in India began outreach work in northern villages, they realized that many children in the region were not attending school. The families they encountered all belonged to the lower castes. Some were afraid that their children would be mistreated by others at school because of their low caste status. […]
The King is Coming!
Read: Matthew 25:31-46 He will sit on his glorious throne. (v. 31) In Matthew 25, Jesus begins with two parables about the final judgment. In today’s text, he speaks with clarity about what will actually happen. Reading this gives me the same feeling as receiving an audit letter from the IRS! Even as it makes me […]