Why Can't We All Get Along?

My apologies for being a little bit behind on the blog. Things have been busy lately around here with Jim’s retirement and some other distractions. But, we’re back now, and we’ve got a timely question cued up for today. Right now as we speak, our Methodist brothers and sisters are gathering at their General Conference. As was the case for we Presbyterians a little while ago, they have taken up the q…

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Between Already and Not Yet

If you’ve been paying close attention to these posts, first of all you have my thanks. But secondly, you may have noticed a bit of a theme developing this month. The theme is that we as followers of Jesus live in this incredibly awkward tension of the already and the not yet. We are already redeemed, but we are not yet in heaven. We are already purchased, but we are not yet with our maker. We a…

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Between Heaven and Hell

I was in Philadelphia. That should have been clue number one. But I was in Philadelphia, and I was riding in a bicycle race. It was the first year that I had been cycling with any kind of consistency, and I was a bit more confident in myself than I should have been. Case in point: for this LIVESTRONG cycling event, I was lined up in the starting chute about 4 rows back from Lance Armstrong. The…

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Between Now and Then

There are lots of things that make being a Christian…weird. What might be worst is that we live in to these little oddities without even noticing them. We’ve become so accustomed to them that they don’t even really flash across our radar. For instance, perhaps our biggest celebration includes phrases like eat his body and drink his blood. Of course, we could spend an entire blog post working throu…

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Between Sinner and Saint

When I was born, I suffered from a kidney disease that required emergency surgery. My father called down to the front desk of the hospital and asked them to send someone to have me baptized right away. When the receptionist asked “Which faith,” my dad wisely responded “Whoever gets here first.” And so it was that I was baptized by a Catholic priest who was double parked outside of Forbes Hospital in a ha…

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