Sunday, 9 June 2013

¹³ When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her, and said to her, “Do not weep.”  ¹⁴ And He came up and touched the coffin; and the bearers came to a halt. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” ¹⁵ The dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother. ¹⁶ Fear gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has visited His people!”

— Luke 7: 13-16 (NASB)

Expectations 

A few chapters later in Luke’s gospel, Jesus questions his disciples about the popular consensus on his ministry.  “Who,” he asks, “do the people say I am?”  The disciples’ first answer is “John the Baptist,” which makes a sort of sense if we remember that people at the time didn’t have the internet, television, gossip magazines, or even newspapers.  They had probably heard of John, but didn’t have any idea what he looked like.  It’s an understandable misconception.

Sunday, 18 November 2012

Here’s a startling revelation:  I’m not a stray cat.

Sure that sounds like the sort of thing I shouldn’t need to remind anyone, but it’s actually an important thought if you spend some time pondering what it means.  It’s actually part of a stark contrast between Christianity and a lot of the other religions in the world.  (And

Sunday, 20 May 2012

Learning to drive is a pretty significant milestone in my life, but not one I noticed.  Rather, I focused on getting to drive.  Oddly, it was freedom which required time consuming commitment and unquestioning submission to myriad rules that are frequently inconvenient and often seem arbitrary.   I don’t mean to say that I always follow the rules,