Jesus ignored the unimportant question about why and focused on our need for redemption. To prepare for God's Kingdom, our lives and our hearts must be changed. This is the work of salvation and sanctification. It requires us to immerse ourselves in the process of seeing with new eyes.

Jesus stood firm as he was crucified. Paul stood firm as he was beaten and imprisoned. Christianity in modern times often seems to stand firm by extreme criticism of those who disagree. What does Paul say about standing firm?

Confessing with our mouths requires and open heart that not only believes but trusts.

Our hope is persistent. Today we explore Paul's relationship with the church at Corinth and how he believes in hope in the midst of conflict. With the prevailing issues in the United Methodist Church, it is time to explore what it means to be a community of faith and how we respond to others.

For Luke, Jesus is the great equalizer so Luke presents Jesus' teaching as being on the plain - leveling all people. Jesus goes beyond loving your neighbor to loving your enemy and blessing your enemy.

The phrase "Love the sinner; hate the sin" is often attributed to St. Augustine in the 4th century although that isn't not exactly what he said. More recently, it has been used to communicate the conflict in the church over LBGTQ inclusion. The problem with this phrase is that it puts us in the position of judge.

The written Word of God can only be viewed through the authority of the Word made flesh that lived among us. Know Scripture. Test and question what someone else tells you it says. Is it consistent with Jesus?

When we say this to people who are going through a stressful period in their lives, we are not only diminishing their experience to lessen our own anxiety, we are misusing a scripture intended to talk about temptation.

We have issues with helplessness so we cling to the illusion of self-reliance with the claim that God helps those who help themselves. In Scripture, we discover this is not true. God steps in where we cannot help ourselves.

Everything happens for a reason. God needed another angel. This was God's will. These are phrases we say when we have no other explanation for what has happened or we are trying to make sense of the senseless. But it that what the Bible says about it?