February 2010 – Page 2 – 300 words a day

A brief lesson in listening to hearts

Jesus talks to Nicodemus. He talks about light and darkness and evil. He points to a Moses story. He scolds Nicodemus for not understanding, for being “Israel’s teacher” and not understanding. Jesus talks to a woman getting water. He talks about water and thirst and living water and hope. She points to a Jacob story. […]

by Jon Swanson

Jesus did not celebrate Lent

But he did fast. He did go away from people. He did pray. He did devote himself to service. He did endure hardship and rejection. He did give up everything. Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Today I give you two gifts: 1. This passage from Psalm 130 I wait for the LORD, […]

by Jon Swanson

i do not understand.

That’s what Nicodemus said. But I can’t tell what kind of “I don’t understand” it is. There is the kind of “I don’t understand” which means, “Can you help me understand?” There’s the kind of “I don’t understand” which means “No one could understand this and it’s of no value to understand.” There’s the kind […]

by Jon Swanson

you have to start again and differently

Decades ago, when Chuck Colson called his book, “Born Again”, it was part of putting that phrase at the front of popular culture. Everyone heard about, some people understood, some people parodied, the idea of being born again. Which is, of course, pretty close to what happened one evening somewhere around Jerusalem. Nicodemus was one […]

by Jon Swanson

words or Word

(Today is a guest post from Rich Dixon, a new and frequent commenter here. ) How do you get to know the truth? A friend once told me that it doesn’t do much good to talk about truth. He said that if you really want to know truth you need to hang out with it, […]