As we recognize that Christ is all – even outside our own box of biases, giftings and sensibilities – we begin to experience the fulness of Christ.
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Sufficient Grace, Part III
As I learn to adjust to the reality of diminished capacity, I’m seeing God prompt people who I’ve invested my life into and mentored in the Lord. Others are now step forward – without me asking – to fill the voids. This, to me, has been the most precious affirmation of God’s grace,
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“Us” and “Them”
The real Body of Christ is an inclusive “us” – you and me. It is not a divisive “us” verses “them”. Rather, we find grace as we submit one to another by esteeming each other in our differences.
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The Fierceness of God
The Apostle Paul wasn’t persecuted and eventually killed for loving Jesus, but because that love made him confront and do things that upended the cultural, religious, economic and civil systems of his day. Some popular Christian authors insist today, however, that believers must refrain from such engagement.
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Sufficient Grace, Part II
Recent tests indicate that my medical condition may be fatal. However, I’m still alive, I’m loved and God is still sovereign!
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Inside Out
Inside out is like a seed. All that the seed can be is contained inside, but the beauty is not displayed until what is hidden appears. (Another devotional from my wife, Marianne.)
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Twitter and Facebook
I love writing this blog, but I also like the more dynamic and interactive environment of Twitter and Facebook. Here’s your invite to also connect with me there.
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Holy Ghost Church in the County Jail
I don’t want to shake up anyone’s theology, but the Holy Spirit was grooving to some powerful, spontaneous rappin’ that was going on!
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Outside the Box
Yes, Christ can be found in the box. But He does His best work, I’ve found, apart from and outside the box.
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Getting to Simple
This morning, I met with a man who loves the Lord but has had re-occurring bouts with drug addiction. He was carrying lots of guilt and shame from things in his past, and was confused because he couldn’t shake the weight of those sins.
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Does Jesus Want You to Vote?
I may be a citizen of the Kingdom of God, but the precinct where God has me live and vote is here in Virginia.
Read moreGod’s Pleasure
Early Virginia mornings with a cup of freshly brewed Columbian coffee is proof enough that God still smiles over His creation.
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Acceptance with Joy
My wife, Marianne, wrote this. Where I am vision and logic, she is feeling and heart. The Lord speaks to us in very different ways, and we have learned to passionately value those differences. Anyway, I think this was for both of us, and maybe it will speak to you too.
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Becoming Our Past
Often, longstanding hurts, disappointments and emotional wounds are like old, familiar friends. We let them become so engrained into our sense of identity that they begin to define us.
Read moreBeyond Evangelical? – A Follow Up
Two days after I posted my series “Beyond Evangelical?”, Milt Rodriguez – who I took to task in that series – wrote his own blog which helps close the gap, so to speak, that I was addressing. Here’s some follow-up thoughts.
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Beyond Evangelical? (Part 3)
A challenge to my “Beyond Evangelical” brethren: If you are not called to something, don’t discredit those who are. Trying to say we must be like you is narcissism – a key characteristic of post-modernity – at its worst. In essence, it’s trying to impose on others a Jesus created in your own image.
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Beyond Evangelical? (Part 2)
What Frank Viola and other “Beyond Evangelical” proponents seem to miss is this: A truly authentic Jesus will be expressed through us to all aspects of life, culture, and history – both relationally and propositionally. And sometimes, what Jesus has to propositionally say to society may offend, even though we may not be acting offensively.
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Beyond Evangelical? (Part 1)
The spirit of this age – at least in the West – is post-modernity, which views reality as subjective and truth (if it even exists) as individual and relative. Post-modernity is not all bad, but neither is it Christ!
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A Multilingual Jesus
God speaks to some subjectively, and to others objectively, and each often forgets that Jesus is multilingual.
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Room at the Inn
This Christmas, the question yet remains: Is there still no room at the inn? Take a chance. Embrace the Joseph’s and Mary’s of our age.
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Grace, Mercy and Love
Too often, we forget that there is a context to grace, mercy and love.
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The Road to Grace
For the religious, the road to grace is the toughest journey they’ll ever face. But slowly, I’m finally starting to find it.
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Ordained to Fail
Those who take on the mantle of “Pastor” are operating within a framework, and on assumptions and traditions, that God never ordained.
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A Hollow Gospel
Broken lives and real people are inconvenient and demand more than your hollow gospel and podium-oriented focus can give. But praise God, you have great meetings!
Read moreDoes Anybody Hear Her?
This made me weep.
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Silence = Death
To those who have been violated, and to those who know, may God give you the grace to find the voice they took from you.
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I Saw Satan Fall
Confession, forgiveness and repentance have become forgotten ordinances that we have twisted into ineffective spiritual abstractions. As a result, most churches have lost the ability to meaningfully administer those graces today.
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Starve the Beast
People are cutting back as they see how their tithes and offerings are typically misused by churches. It seems that folks are fed up with all the money grubbing for ego-buildings, staff who are increasingly detached from real ministry, and life-sucking programs that don’t really advance the Kingdom of God.
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Limousine Liberals
One afternoon a liberal congressman – well known for supporting expensive budget busting government programs to “help” the poor – was riding in his limousine when he saw two men along the roadside eating grass. Disturbed, he ordered his driver to stop so he could investigate….
Read moreJesus, the Living Word
If we deny that God speaks and acts today in vibrant, direct and personal ways, and if we try to box Him in by claiming that He only speaks through Scripture, then how are we different from Muslims?
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May 25, 2012

Church sower, mentor, teacher, foe of tyrants, friend of the dispossessed, Christian, thinker, author, attorney, entrepreneur, pilot and so-so bass fisherman.