Ye are suffering, he says. For such is chastisement; such is its beginning. For “no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous.” Well said he, “seemeth not.” Chastisement he means is not grievous but “seemeth” so. “All chastisement”: not this and that, but “all,” both human and spiritual. Seest thou that he … Read More “No One Like’s To Be Wrong (Hebrews 12:11-13)” »
Category: Pentecost
The very fact that they were content to die without themselves attaining, if so God’s purpose might be accomplished to their seed, invests them with a peculiar grandeur of unselfishness. Their faith was essentially the same principle as that of Christians, even though the final object of Christian hope were hidden from their eyes; while … Read More “Seeking the “Fatherland” (Hebrews 11:13-23)” »
This is one of the grand chapters of the Bible, a gallery of notable portraits of ancient great believers, each drawn with a master hand. They all believed the unseen, they all trusted a promise, things for which they had to wait and hope. One grand characteristic makes them all kin—faith. Things adverse, matters contradictory, … Read More “A Grand Expression of Faith (Hebrews 11:1-12)” »
The mighty tree. A symbol of the power and beauty of creation, proud surveyor of the natural world and a beacon of hope standing tall above manmade structures. But what is the tree without its roots? Christians have spent millennia contemplating the “fruit” of trees as a metaphor for spiritual health and expression. We have … Read More “Arboreal Theology” »
I’ll just say it: I’m a Lutheran Pastor and I was raised Pentecostal… Honestly, I use to tell my Lutheran friends just to see how they’d respond. What I discovered quickly was that they didn’t respond! They didn’t care. They knew I was different. And they knew I wasn’t like them, at least initially. I … Read More “Ponderings of a Pentecostal” »