Grace and Mercy Day in 2nd Grade
Mrs. Kinder, my son Jacob’s second grade teacher, told us on orientation night, “I’m big on mercy. So, throughout the year, we’ll be having grace… Read More »Grace and Mercy Day in 2nd Grade
Forgiveness
The Other Golden Rule
In Matt. 18 Jesus tells a parable of a debtor who owes a king millions of dollars. Because the debtor cannot pay, everything he owns is… Read More »The Other Golden Rule
The (re)Born Identity of Sanctity: Remembering Who You’ve Become Through Baptism (Rom. 6:1-23; 1 Cor. 6:9-11)
A man once emailed me. He claimed to be a Christian. And the topic of his email was sin. He wrote about his sexual addictions and how he’s been attending counseling to deal with the addiction. He said, I am trying to get my life straightened out but am not sure how to do it and am scared to do it. There was genuine struggle in his words. It was the email of a Christian wrestling with sin. I’ll bet it’s the kind of email many of us could send. You may not be struggling with sexual addictions. But you probably are struggling with a behavior that could be called sin.
The (re)Born Identity of Security: Remembering Who You’ve Become Through Baptism (Col. 2:6-23; Gal. 3:15-4:7)
“The Bourne Identity” was a 2002 film based on a book by Robert Ludlum.[1] “The Bourne Identity” begins with the crew of an Italian fishing boat sighting a man floating unconscious in the sea. After pulling him out, the crew of the boat discovers gunshots in the man’s back. While treating these wounds, the ship’s medical officer finds a device embedded in the man’s hip. The device contains the number of a safe deposit box in Zurich. Eventually, the man regains consciousness. He doesn’t know where he is or who he is. Over the next few days, the man learns he is fluent in several languages and can perform uncommon tasks like navigating and tying exotic knots. Still he cannot remember anything about who he is. When the ship docks, the man travels to Zürich to investigate the safe deposit box which the item in his hip had indicated. He finds the bank and the box. Inside are several passports containing his picture (all under different names and nationalities), large amounts of assorted currencies, and a gun. He picks the first passport. It claims his name is Jason Bourne. The rest of the movie records Jason Bourne’s search for his true identity.