February 2009 – Page 5 – 300 words a day

be something useful

Salt and light. Jesus talks about being salt and light. Salt seasons. It preserves. It melts ice. It helps make homemade ice cream. It corrodes paint. It makes water undrinkable. It makes the same water support life. It is simple. It is natural. It is found in lots of locations, from deep underground to deep […]

by Jon Swanson

Because of me

Christ followers are dying right now. I’ll be more accurate. They are being killed right now. Because of Jesus. Because they decided, somewhere, somehow, to identify with Jesus, they are being killed and harassed and robbed and tortured and exiled. Jesus was clear. Being identified with Him is dangerous. He said: Blessed are you when […]

by Jon Swanson

Dear friend

You want to follow God. You are feeling like you have nothing to offer, like you are at a party where everyone else brings cool gifts and you are still waiting for your last paycheck and so have nothing. You think about how you have done wrong and how often you have messed up, and […]

by Jon Swanson

what counts as

Jesus says “”Blessed” nine times at the beginning of the teaching starting in chapter 5. We look at this list, which is called the beatitudes, and try to figure out what Jesus meant. Actually, I think, we try and figure out how we can be part of the list. For example, Jesus says that the […]