Deep-End Discipleship

 “ But Peter ran to the tomb. When he bent over to look inside, he saw only the linen cloth. Then he returned home, wondering what had happened.” - Luke 24:12 CEB - Often we feel like we need to get it. We need to get it quickly. The pressure is on. The test seems to be in front of us. And yet sometimes it just doesn’t make sense. Often when we talk about God, it feels like we have to have all the answers now. We need to know exactly what God is about, exactly what God is doing now. And yet this is why I love Peter in the Gospel of Luke! Jesus dies, the disciples mourn, and then suddenly something happens that third day when the women go to the tomb. They come back and tell the disciples that Christ is risen but none of them believe them. It feels as if they are talking nonsense. Peter even decides to run to the tomb himself. And even then he returned home wondering. Sometimes I think that at times this is all God wants or needs of us. God just wants us

“But you aren’t self-centered. Instead you are in the Spirit, if in fact God’s Spirit lives in you. If anyone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, they don’t belong to him. If Christ is in you, the Spirit is your life because of God’s righteousness, but the body is dead because of sin. If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your human bodies also, through his Spirit that lives in you.” Romans 8:9-11 If we live in the Spirit and the Spirit lives in us, our bodies will receive life. Christ, who lived in flesh restored it. Christ came to bring salvation and salvation is life giving! Therefore our flesh, originally made good, has been restored by the one who embodied flesh perfectly. Jesus truly was 100% divine and 100% human, and Paul does indeed affirm this. Jesus was absolutely of total humanity, but without sin. We know that we were not created sinful, and so sin is not necessary to gen

"It’s not that I have already reached this goal or have already been perfected, but I pursue it, so that I may grab hold of it because Christ grabbed hold of me for just this purpose. Brothers and sisters, I myself don’t think I’ve reached it, but I do this one thing: I forget about the things behind me and reach out for the things ahead of me. The goal I pursue is the prize of God’s upward call in Christ Jesus."  -Philippians 3: 12-14 CEB Goal setting is an important process that can help us grow in numerous ways. When we set goals we are motivated to accomplish something, or reach a new level in something. This could be a goal in academics like a grade on the STAR test or the SAT. Maybe your goal is in your sport like trying to beat your fastest time, or personal records. Goals help us decide what we want in the future, and gives us aspirations to get there. So if we set goals in aspects of life like school, sports, music, art, or work… Do we set goals for our

“So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived! In other words, God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, by not counting people’s sins against them. He has trusted us with this message of reconciliation.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17, 19 – Friendship is a truly special yet sometimes complicated thing. As small children, friendship seems easy. As we grow, friendships tend to get more complicated. As we grow up, friendships tend to become more complicated. Sometimes a friend can do something to us that’s truly painful, or, perhaps we do something painful to a friend. It’s sadly so easy to hurt, intentionally or unintentionally, those closest to us. Reconciliation is when two parties choose to forgive past hurt or grievance and come up with some kind of resolution in how to move forward in the relationship. According to the Bible, we were separated from God because of our s

Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my plans than your plans. so is my word that comes from my mouth; it does not return to me empty. Instead, it does what I want, and accomplishes what I intend.  - Isaiah 55:9, 11 (CEB) - We’ve all been there. We feel exactly like a dead cell phone - drained, useless, practically dead weight. We wonder what on earth God could do with us. We hear talk of God’s purpose, but without some spark beyond ourselves we will never be more than what we feel. This is exactly why I love reading the prophets sometimes. Sure there are times when they are hard on God’s people, but there are beautiful places when they also remind God’s people that their goodness is not determined on what they think. God is ready to work in us before we even know what to do. God’s plan is so much bigger and larger than any of our own doubt, self-pity or uncertainty. God’s plan does not retur

Jesus and his followers came into Jericho. As Jesus was leaving Jericho, together with his disciples and a sizable crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, Timaeus’ son, was sitting beside the road. When he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was there, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, show me mercy!” Many scolded him, telling him to be quiet, but he shouted even louder, “Son of David, show me mercy!”  Jesus stopped and said, “Call him forward.”  They called the blind man, “Be encouraged! Get up! He’s calling you.”  Throwing his coat to the side, he jumped up and came to Jesus.  Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”  The blind man said, “Teacher, I want to see.”  Jesus said, “Go, your faith has healed you.” At once he was able to see, and he began to follow Jesus on the way. Mark 10:46-52 CEB The Gospel of Mark is full of healing stories, to the point where the gospel glosses over some of them because there are so many. One of the reasons why t