Deep-End Discipleship

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. – 1 Corinthians 15:9-10a NIV – Over half of the New Testament was written by one man: the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul is renowned as being a great man of faith and one of the strongest early supporters of the Christian faith. These things are true. What is also true is that the Apostle Paul was once the Pharisee Saul who persecuted and ordered the execution of Christians. Jesus touched Paul’s life in a dramatic way and everything changed. Paul embraced and taught grace, but Paul knew that he was once this evil, murderous Saul. I bet most of us have never done the terrible things that Pharisee Saul did, but I also bet that most of us can think back on things we’ve done that we’re not proud of. Often when we think on these things we wish the memories could go away ...

"For now we see in a mirror, dimly,   but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known." 1 Corinthians 13:12 I've had this song stuck in my head for a few weeks now. It's been on repeat in my mind and it goes like this; "We walk by faith and not by sight. No gracious words have we to hear from him who spoke as no 'ere spoke, but we believe him near. We may not touch his hands and side, nor follow where his feet have trod, but in his promise we rejoice and cry my Lord and my God. Help then Lord our unbelief and let now our faith abound. Let us call on thee when thou art near, and to seek where thou art found. That when our life of faith is done in realms of clearer, glorious light, we may behold you as thou art, in full and endless sight. I need no other argument, I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me." For the first 16 days of this new y...

“But your loyal love, Lord, extends to the skies; your faithfulness reaches the clouds. Your righteousness is like the strongest mountains; your justice is like the deepest sea. Lord, you save both humans and animals. Your faithful love is priceless, God! Humanity finds refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the bounty of your house;you let them drink from your river of pure joy.Within you is the spring of life.   In your light, we see light. ” Psalm 36: 5-9 CEB What do you do when you’re having a really, totally, horribly bad day? Do you isolate yourself, or flock to friends? Do you seek out music or movies to relate to your feelings? Do you try and keep yourself busy with homework and tasks, or do you space out and let your mind go numb? I think that this is an important thing to know about ourselves. Sometimes these outlets can be good, but other times, our coping mechanisms don’t always help us face the problem at hand. When something happens, an...

You, divine beings! Give to the Lord— give to the Lord glory and power! Give to the Lord the glory due his name! Bow down to the Lord in holy splendor! Psalm 29:1-2 I have a lot of questions. Even as a someone in Christian ministry and currently pursuing a masters degree in theology, I have faith questions. Sometimes things that I should know the answer to I don’t know. Reading the above scripture I thought about the word “glory” and realized that if I was asked to define it, I don’t know what I’d say! So I consulted good old Google and went to dictionary.com which defines glory in many ways but my favorite definition is, “a state of great splendor, magnificence, or prosperity.” Perhaps we can also say that for God to be glorious then God is a Being of great splendor, magnificence, or prosperity. These verses from the beginning of Psalm 29 can remind us that God deserves the glory for all the things God has done, but also deserves the glory for simply being who God...

 “ Jesus matured in wisdom and years, and in favor with God and with people." - Luke 2:52 CEB - Christmas is done and we focus so much time on little baby Jesus! We quickly skip from the baby to the adult Savior that walks on water, feeds multitudes and asks tough questions. For this reason, I love this reminder in the gospel of Luke. Jesus matured! Jesus did not just come out of the manager ready to go. The early church had a hard time canonizing stories of Jesus as an elementary aged kid or even a middle-schooler.  Any of the surviving stories pair the growing mistakes of children with the power and mystic of a God in human form. Some have Jesus using cosmic powers to prank his friends, other has Jesus creating doves out of dust. Overall they just come out feeling weird. No wonder the early church did not find them useful to put in the Bible! I like to think that this verse from Luke really connects how Jesus lived into the divine/human balance. As Jesus ...