Where does God dwell? This was an important question in the ancient world. In fact, I think this is an important question for our world today. Where do we go to meet God? As we think through this our answers will determine how we view God, what is “holy” and our role in knowing Him. The answer: in a…

Sometimes forgiveness is hard work. As we complete our series today on forgiveness I think it is important to state the obvious: Sometimes forgiveness is hard to do. Other times it is simple and easy. The greater the hurt the harder it may be. Forgiveness is NOT reconciliation. Though I believe forgiveness…

Bringing peace to our world. This is a very hard task, job, path, journey or whatever other word you would like to use. We know that Jesus is our peace, He is the Prince of Peace. I think of the words of the prophet Jeremiah who said, Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried…

Live produces pain, hurt, and trauma. To live means we will be hurt and have pain. We all have traumas we carry. Some may call this baggage. We eye the evil face to face and we call it what it is. Only realists can be forgivers.-Lewis B. Smedes To forgive we must remember differently. This is the main…

In this world we will have pain. I am not talking about just physical pain. I am talking about the mental, emotional and relational pain as a result of living with others. Community is not optional. One of the ways we could effectively prevent this pain is to not be around anyone. Some here would love…

Mercy=not getting what we deserve. This is very simplified definition. Grace=getting what we do not deserve. A simplified definition though it is way more complex and deep than just this. Forgiveness is based on mercy. Justice demands a payment and mercy says forgiveness can be made by accepting a payment…

Our world can encourage entitlement. Sometimes we feel we are “owed” something. This can lead to pride in some cases and taken to the extreme can lead to what we call “narcissism”. We may feel like we don’t deserve anything. The opposite is sometimes we feel like we don’t deserve anything. To the We…

Things are not as they always seem. Sometimes what we see doesn’t at first make sense to us. This is especially true if we are unfamiliar with a practice of another culture or person. We need to live integrated lives. This is part of what James has been teaching us. As we gather into Holy Week, and I…

We all need hope. Where is your hope? What gives you hope? How do you gain hope? Hope is a very powerful. It is essential for all of life, if you ask me, and you didn’t but oh well. :D James wants to remind us of our true hope. As we come to the end of the book of James we must realize these final verses…