Posts from 2013

Waiting is not passive; it is proactive. Good waiting requires imagination: the taking hold of a picture of what could be, what will be.  In the early part of his prophesy, Isaiah envisions radical restoration.   He sees a day when weapons of aggression and destruction will be re-purposed into tools of nurture and harvest.  We can actively wait for that vision by living into it now.  Rather than learning war, we can train for reconciliation.  And the very things…

Is there anything more valuable than peace?     We’ve been studying the “priestly blessing” given to Moses by God, Himself, in the Old Testament book called “Numbers” (chapter six).  It is a blessing that is wonderfully concise, powerful, practical and personal.  It’s also progressive.  By that I mean that it begins with a blessing for basic material provision and protection: “The LORD bless you and keep you.”   In other words, “May God give you stuff and protect you…

Worship is two things. It is all of life. And, in a very focused sense, it is a specific set of activities at a specific time and place in life. It can be all of life.  It can spread out to everything. It’s also a very specific, contained, focused experience. You’ve seen those shirts that say: Football is life… and we get that that means that, for some, football spreads out over all of life. But we also understand that there is a sense in…

  Normal.dotm 0 0 1 160 914 Emmaus Church Community 7 1 1122 12.0 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:””; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;} Turn the Other Cheek (Matthew 5:38-42) Inigo Montoya: I admit it, you are better than I am. Man in Black: Then why are you smiling? Inigo Montoya: Because I know something…