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- Born-Again, Again - Born-Again, Again: In a recent Watchword, I revealed that it’s been 45 years since my own born-again experience, a singular event in my faith walk. In that recent Watchword, I referenced Nicodemus and his conversation with Jesus and observed that Jesus was not very patient with this Pharisee, this scholar, this teacher of the law. He had been curious enough to come to Jesus at night, and to tell him “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miracles are proof enough of this.” What Jesus had told him was puzzling…”Unless you are born again, you can never get into the Kingdom of God.” What is going through the mind of the Pharisee, as he walked away from that encounter with Jesus? This may be reaching, but in my mind, being born-again is an encounter with Christ. We see that throughout the New Testament, and if we read with discerning eyes certain passages of the Old Testament, meeting Jesus was a life changer. So, why would that meeting not have eventually changed Nicodemus? A Pharisee being born again? Radical! Continue reading
- Dying in Order to Live - Dying in Order to Live: Recently, a subscriber to Watchwords raised this question: What does it mean that you must die, if you want to be alive? Jesus, in his conversation with Nicodemus, was not very patient. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a teacher of the law, yet he did not understand what was written in the Law. Jesus reminds him that “Men can only reproduce human life.” But, only by being “born again” by the Holy Spirit, can that human life become new from heaven. The imprint on a person’s spirit of a “born again” experience can be definitive, or subtle to the point where the only remnant is reflected in the life pattern of the person. Yet, every believer has a point in her or his life when they acknowledge Jesus as God, maybe moving from parent’s faith to their own. That is being Born-again. Continue reading
- The Second Coming - The Second Coming: What are your thoughts on the Second Coming of Christ? With frequency, we read the Apostle’s Creed which tells us that Jesus will come again to “judge the living and the dead.” Hmm, what do you think that means? Another concept, popular among some groups of Christians, is “the rapture” of the church. One definition is “a feeling of intense pleasure or joy”, but that doesn’t quite fit when matched up with the Second Coming. The Christian definition of the rapture is “the transporting of believers to heaven at the Second coming of Christ. That’s a much better fit. Continue reading
- The New Eden - The New Eden: There are a lot of beautiful hymns around Easter time, and one that I really enjoy because I can actually get into the Music is “In the Garden”. I’m sure it’s familiar with all of you. In the actual, scriptural garden, the man and the woman, created by God, displays human qualities by passing the buck, making excuses, being “tricked”. With that, sin entered the world and here we are. That’s not the end of story. God didn’t leave from there and dessert them, he made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them, hinting at Jesus’ covering our sins. We can’t return to the garden, but we can return to the God of the garden.” Continue reading
- Not a One-Way Street - Not a One-Way Street: Different degrees of depression are common to all of us. What may be different is how we deal with it. There were times when I immersed myself in depression, covered myself with self-pity, and wondered if I had value of any kind. Can you relate? Maybe you’re sitting alone in your home, sad. Maybe you’re alienated from parts of your family and feel that loneliness. Maybe you lost your spouse and feel that alone-ness so intensely that it brings you down. Perhaps all of this builds up to the point where you realize that you are depressed and you have to do something about it. One way that I have dealt with my “downtime” was to free associate, to write it down, and let it all out; all the self-pity, all the demeaning things. It was during one of those free association exercises that I came across an interesting sentence, that brought me to a stop: “You are a child of God, and your faith is not a one-way street.” I paused and looked at that idea, and thought about it, as tears came. Continue reading
- Salvation? - Salvation? Salvation? What is that? How would you define it? The basic meaning of salvation is “rescue,” that is being delivered from something. However, the Biblical definition is just a little different. Salvation is not just about being saved from something, but being saved for something. I think the answer to the question of what are we being saved from or for, rests in the little phrase, the righteousness of God found Iin 2 Cor. 5:21. Note the words “might become”. It is there for us to accept, it is our decision. Continue reading
- I Am He - I Am He: This passage of John 4, “The woman at the well”, is a pivotal story in the ministry of Jesus, and it’s a mystery. Who was this woman? Was she really from the nearby village? What kind of a woman was she? We have the impression that she was a woman of questionable morals, but we might come to that conclusion without facts, without any understanding of the life that she had led. She only appears in scripture at Jacob's Well, and we learn that she had five husband, or five men she had lived with. There may have been reasons for that, maybe it rested with the men, possibly her life had been cruel and she had made poor decisions. We simply don’t know. But we do know a few things; we know that somewhere in her past life she had an understanding of the coming of the Messiah. Where had she learned that? It certainly was not revealed to her in the Pentateuch, the Torah that Samaritans studied. So, where did her knowledge come from? We don’t know. That is part of her mystery. Continue reading
- “Does God Curse Us?” - "Does God Curse Us?" I thought about that question and my own life journey and the few remembered adversities that I struggled through. I say “few remembered adversities” because, even though at the time I thought the sky was falling on me many times, the truth is, I can recall only once when I was truly frustrated with the Lord, during the five-year health decline of the love of my life. There may have been other times, but they left no mark. When we embrace Jesus as Lord and Savior, we declare God’s sovereignty and pledge our own submission. The metaphor of the Potter and the clay teaches a truth that is hard for many to accept. We don’t like to say that God is responsible for the trouble that enters our lives, but the answer is that God is absolutely responsible for all those elements that we deem as “troubles” or “curses”. That should be a comfort to us, for if God were not in charge, then our lives would be left to chance, and the matter of God’s sovereignty would have no meaning. Continue reading
- Save Me, Lord! - Save Me, Lord! When stuck against a mountain of trouble, or perhaps in a storm of our own, and we don’t know where to turn, how do we respond? Peter chose to cry out, “Save me, Lord”, in a panic. How about you? The wind was a gale force and the waves were high, but Peter didn’t see them because He had his eye on Jesus. Oh, but then, the wind made itself known and he saw the waves, and he was afraid. There are any number of things in our lives that might cause us to be afraid, or worry, or perhaps you’ve said something that offended some people, people that you really like and respect, and it hits you like it gut punch. What to do, how to respond? What goes through your mind? Continue reading
- Putting God to the Test - Putting God to the Test: Have you put God to the test? Or maybe you made a bargain with God. You know, God if you’ll do this, I’ll do that or I’ll never miss another Sunday or I’ll never asked for another thing. Have you ever done any of that? Satan says to Jesus, turn these stones into bread and enjoy. Jesus counters with, man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. And, of course, you might encounter on your own by saying, of course that’s what He’d say, after all he is God. Have you ever thought about this; that the adversities in our lives are first confronted and dealt with in the secret places of our will, in God’s presence. Continue reading
- Do You Trust God? - Do you Trust God? John 6:52-69 is a big bite of Scripture, but the message is pretty clear to us. Many of Jesus’ disciples were having a hard time understanding the analogy, taking some of it literally and it upset them, to the point where some gave up and missed the powerful witness of Peter in verses 68 and 69. We, of the Resurrection, have an understanding of the sacraments and their meaning, and it is there that we place our trust. Continue reading
- Hey, God, I’ve Got A Question! - Hey God, I've got a question! The question, “What must I do?”, is a good one, and the answer had already been given. Every moment of our lives, we are to be merciful. We are to be fair and nonjudgmental. Get that, nonjudgmental. We are not to see ourselves as superior, but to love everyone with equality. In other words, we are to care for others the same way we care for ourselves. We are called to be color blind, status blind, and we are called to use the abundance that God has given us to help alleviate the suffering in the world around us. That is what the Lord requires of us. How are we holding up our part of the bargain? Are we really good people? In whose eyes? Our own? God’s, where it counts? Whose? By what measure? Continue reading
- A Conversation with God - A Conversation with God: Life is filled with unexpected pits and twists. What has been happening to you over these past two years ? Some of you put on weight – blaming it that on the Covid. Some have drawn closer to family, loved ones, friends – crediting your own need and your common sense. It seems that most of us have drawn closer to God and our faith – Thank you, Lord. Truth – During this time, God matured us in our faith, in ways we could not have anticipated. We have drawn closer to the Word. We have changed in ways that bless the lives of others, and ourselves, even today. Continue reading
- Heaven - Heaven: I have been thinking about a meditation on the subject of Heaven for some time, ever since I read Randy Alcorn’s book, Deadline. In that fiction story, the author presents a vivid, encouraging, and thought-provoking image of eternal life with God, that, for me, completely reset what I imagined Heaven would be like. I think too often we have this idea that Heaven is faraway and it’s a place we hope to go to someday, but not today. And yet, through Christ it is very near, and the more we follow Jesus, the more the reality of Heaven comes alive in us. Did you get that? In us. Continue reading
- Sparks Fly - Sparks Fly: It was such a little thing, a small thing. Some might say it was a stupid thing that led to angry words, a slammed door, and, much later, forgiveness asked for and given. Relationships are often shaped and reshaped by conflict, by arguments, by differences of opinion. Sometimes the relationship is strengthened, sometimes the relationship does not survive. We see that in an incident that occurred early in the history of our Christian faith. You’ll remember the story; Barnabas, Paul and Mark set off on the first mission journey, planting churches and spreading the teachings of Jesus throughout the Middle East. Then Mark, a young man, probably in his late teens, finds it hard to continue, and he returns to Jerusalem. Two iron-willed Christian leaders in conflict over having Mark accompany them. The friendship is broken, or at least damaged, and the two go their separate ways, Barnabas with Mark, Paul with Silas. The breach lasted for a time. Continue reading
- Why Resurrection? - Why Resurrection?: The Resurrection is the center piece in our faith story. We say, without apology, that without the Resurrection there would be no Christianity, no Christ. Our trust in the resurrection is more than our anticipation that we will leave this world someday and go to heaven. on the contrary, it is a bold confidence that God’s kingdom, presents, and power are visible in our world today and that there is a whole new creation beginning. Why Resurrection? Because it is the beginning of new life, fresh grass growing through the hardness of hate, corruption and decay, a light shining in the darkness to signal a better way, a new way. Why Resurrection? That’s why. So be it. Continue reading
- Abide with Me - Abide with Me: I think too often when we hear that phrase ‘be strong and of good courage’ we may think of action heroes coming to the rescue, saving us from really bad things, at the very last moment. But it is God saying to us to abide in his word and not lose faith, He will walk with us through this present Jordan. As believers in Jesus Christ we need to allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit then to reach out with courage and compassion to others who are suffering through this time. We cannot do this on our own, that’s the reality of our frailty. But we can do it with Jesus who will give us the strength. We are never alone when we speak the truth in love. Continue reading
- In Times Like These - In Times Like These: You cringe when go to the gas station to put gas in your car, remembering a time when a gallon was under $2.00. Perhaps you are in the grocery store and you stand there shaking your head at the price of a pound of bacon…$13.00, and decide, ‘No way”. You go to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription that in past months was always $12, but now the clerk tells you, $27. You sigh, deeply. In times like these, it is easy to let fear grip our hearts and occupy our minds. What we heard last night in the latest news, causes even more fear, if we let it. I love the hymn, Joyful, Joyful, we adore You. The greatest thing about it is you don’t even have to sing it. It’s a prayer, and perhaps it’s one we need today: ‘Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away. Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the Light of day’. Continue reading
- The Warmth of My Bed - The Warmth of My Bed: It was 6:10 a.m. and I felt lousy. It was a Wednesday morning and my Bible Study group would begin work on Exodus Chapter 4, at 7 a.m. Yesterday had been a busy day and I had gotten to bed late. I never set an alarm because I’m usually up before 5 a.m., except for this morning. I stood beside the bed in the morning chill, then I pull back the covers and slipped between the sheets, still warm. It felt so good! I drifted back to sleep. Ten minutes later I was wide-awake, now debating about going to church. The dread that I felt just ten minutes before had disappeared like early morning mist with the awareness that my Lord was present with me. Let me make this clear, this was not an unusual happening. I felt the same sensation many times before. However, the vividness of the experience was a little different and it struck me with an awareness that this had been the voice of the Holy Spirit. Continue reading
- What is Patriotism? - What is Patriotism? What is patriotism? Remember this -- "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Does it change after someone experiences war? Every generation seems to redefine patriotic behavior. In the aftermath of recent terrorism and war, Americans are faced with how to think about freedom and how to protect it. Does patriotism mean displaying the flag or practicing dissent or both? Our veterans challenge us with provocative questions on the nature of our patriotism and offer highly personal answers. At the core of anyone who serves this country for the good of all our neighbors and friends, is an awareness of dedicating a portion of themselves to this nation. It becomes engrained, and at some point, each of us has been struck by the notion we we are doing it for all, every one of us. As it should be. Continue reading
