Many people heard many things in church last Sunday. Many words, many challenges, many opportunities. Many invitations, many explanations, many ideas. All of the things we heard can confuse our ability to obey. Every discussion is an opportunity for confusion as well as clarity. All of the information can become noise. However, today we have […]

The clocks change in our country on this Sunday, an intentional and arbitrary shift forward by an hour. And for the first time in decades, I don’t care. I’m not responsible to help a congregation remember. I’m not responsible to be at work on time, to make sure every clock I see in someone else’s […]

Some people look spiritual for all the wrong reasons. Jesus singles them out. He calls them “false prophets.” Why do they choose to be false? Because some people trust spiritual-looking people for all the wrong reasons. Jesus offers a couple warnings near the end of his lesson. People can look like good people because they […]

Rich Dixon is following up on his own thinking. +++ I’ve been thinking about guilt and shame since last time. Guilt’s about something I’ve done wrong. Until I deal with it, the guilt remains. Problem is, often we’re hanging on to stuff we’re afraid might be unforgivable. So we try to ignore it, and we […]

I have written elsewhere about deliberate practice. Simply, it is choosing to work in a focused way on the weakest parts of what you are best at. Such specific work can, I think, apply in following Jesus. It came to mind when looking at what Jesus said about gates and roads. “Enter through the narrow […]