Month: August 2016

You shall love the Lord your God. That is the greatest command. Jesus said so. The silver medal mandate, he added, is to love others. Get those two right and everything else falls into place. He said love is what drives obedience, marks a disciple and identifies us as children of God. And he’s not the only one to put love on a pedestal. Paul celebrated faith and hope, but the crowning virtue, he said, is love. You don’t need a theology degree, though, to appreciate the importance of love. On this point, even John Lennon agreed with Jesus – … Read more…

Moments before he rose from his seat and made his way to the stage, the rafters in that ancient auditorium had been shaken by our singing. Three-hundred of us had been making a joyful noise unto the Lord on a Friday night. I’d like to tell you we were there because of our deeply held faith. That was part of it, I’m sure, but we were also broke college students who couldn’t afford a real date. And even if we’d had money, there was nowhere to spend it in a town that rolled up the sidewalks at 9:00 p.m. But … Read more…

Some years ago, a church member asked me to visit a friend of hers – a used car salesman – who had been diagnosed with cancer. It was a bad cancer, too. She warned me that “Bill” was not easy to talk to and had a bad attitude toward church and religion. In fact, she said, he was one of the toughest, least spiritual people she’d ever met, but she loved him and wanted very badly for him to get to know Jesus. So I went to see him. When we sat down to talk, the first thing Bill said … Read more…

Isaiah 57:17 is almost too good to believe. God says, “I live in a high and holy place, but also with those who are contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.” Revival. The promise that what is old can be made young. What is tired can be made fresh. What is broken can be mended. If it has been lost, it can be regained. If it is dry and barren as a desert, it can become as alive and full of possibility as a fertile field. What is … Read more…