When it comes to parenting, an extreme focus on character education and training in our culture has seeped into the church and into Christianity at large. Mesmerized by good behavior, we have equated positive character traits with godliness. We are in shock by the degradation and immorality we see around us, and we believe we can fix the tidal wave of a culture gone mad. We truly believe we can turn it around with educational programs that teach good character and a standard of morality. However, in focusing on the traits rather than the Giver of them, we have placed […]

What is hope? Where do you go to find hope? Can hope be found? Is it real or is hope just a feeling you get when things go well? I had a jar sitting on my bathroom counter and the label said it all. “Hope in a Jar.” It sounded so reassuring. Part of the reason I purchased this smooth concoction of age reducing moisturizer was that I actually believed what it said, at least in part. I fell for the alluring advertising. It appealed to my desire for a more youthful complexion in the midst of my aging reality. […]

The ball has dropped, the tinsel is fading, and the fireworks and celebrations are spent. Advent is over, the new year is here and things have not changed. I look around and see no radical move of God, no deep and lasting transformation. Like last year, my resolutions look more like my Christmas wish list – mostly dreams and unfulfilled longings. The beginning of a new year brings hope of renewal, fresh starts and clean slates. That is what I used to think. I guess I have lived a few more years and am more realistic these days. I now […]

Something about the title of this article probably interests you. The word “outcast” may have caught your attention, but probably not in a positive way. It’s the kind of interest you have when you drive by the scene of a horrific car accident. You pretend you do not want to view the details, but inside you long to see every bit of the horror. What do you think of when you read the word “outcast”? Do you envision the person in your neighborhood that looks different from you? Do you picture the woman on the busy intersection median boldly soliciting […]

Michael Rivers While passing through an intersection one evening, a small car hit my SUV on the driver side.  For a brief moment that seemed like an eternity at the time, my life flashed before my eyes. The impact of the collision flipped my SUV over and then back upright about 20 feet down the road.  Thankfully, I walked away from the accident unscratched and pain free. We might find ourselves in the midst of an unexpected collision, often surprised by a life-altering impact.  In the eighth chapter of John’s gospel, we discover an adulterous woman who was also impacted […]

Heather B. Iseminger As a little girl I remember watching the TV screen with child-like awe. Wonder Woman was my hero. She was powerful, she wore golden, bullet-deflecting bracelets, she never failed to defeat the enemy, and could change clothes in an instant. What little girl wouldn’t want to be her? I mean, who wouldn’t want to save the world in an hour? As I raced around my technicolor living room, I was Wonder Woman. The Underoos proved it. Sounds like a glorious life, right? We live in a day and age where the Super Woman mentality invades the female […]

Who me?  I’m not beautiful.  I’m only someone likely to make a bad choice, believe a lie, or place my affections on wrong things.  How can God call me beautiful?  How can I arise from my knees in those places of deep regret?  Isn’t this the way we often feel when we read the words: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9)? In John 8:3-11, the Pharisees and lawgivers brought a woman caught in the act of adultery (most would call her […]