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Slice: Making Jesus Your Resurrection and Life (Jn. 11)

In his book Unspeakable Os Guinness tells the story of a Christian leader whose son had been killed in a cycling accident.[1]  Although this Christian leader was devastated he managed to suppress his grief, even preaching powerfully at his son’s funeral. His display of hope in the midst of tragedy led many to admire him.  But weeks after the funeral of his son, the man invited Guinness and a few friends to his house.  According to Guinness, this man then proceeded to speak and scream “not with the hope of a preacher but with the hurt of the father—pained and furious at God, dark and bilious in his blasphemy.”  It must have been a moving and troubling scene: a strong Christian leader screaming at God, dark and bilious in his blasphemy.Read More »Slice: Making Jesus Your Resurrection and Life (Jn. 11)

Slice: Making Jesus The Vine of Your Life (Jn. 15:1-17)

Last year New York Times editorialist Nicholas Kristof wrote a column about evangelical Christians.[1] The column confessed that some evangelical Christians act in ways that are immoral and hypocritical.  But he went on to write this:

…in reporting on poverty, disease and oppression, I’ve seen so many others. Evangelicals are disproportionately likely to donate 10 percent of their incomes to charities, mostly church-related. More important, go to the front lines, at home or abroad, in the battles against hunger, malaria, prison rape, obstetric fistula, human trafficking or genocide, and some of the bravest people you meet are evangelical Christians (or conservative Catholics, similar in many ways) who truly live their faith.  I’m not particularly religious myself, but I stand in awe of those I’ve seen risking their lives in this way—and it sickens me to see that faith mocked at New York cocktail parties.Read More »Slice: Making Jesus The Vine of Your Life (Jn. 15:1-17)

Slice: Making Jesus The Way, Truth and Life (Jn. 14:6)

In 1942 the U. S. government decided to carve a road from Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Big Delta, Alaska.[1] Called the Alaska Highway, it would stretch 1,422 miles over the Canadian Rockies, through the Yukon Territory, and into remote Alaska.  A recruiting poster made this promise to anyone applying to work on the job:

“Men hired for this job will be required to work and live under the most extreme conditions imaginable.  Temperatures will range from 90 degrees above zero to 70 degrees below zero.  Men will have to fight swamps, rivers, ice and cold.  Mosquitos, flies and gnats will not only be annoying but will cause bodily harm.  If you are not prepared to work under these and similar conditions, do not apply.”Read More »Slice: Making Jesus The Way, Truth and Life (Jn. 14:6)

Slice: Making Jesus The Door of Your Life (Jn. 10:1-21)

Tim Hansel is the author of a book entitled When I Relax I Feel Guilty.[1] He tells of the time when Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck decided to travel across the United States.  Steinbeck and his dog set out in his truck.  He recorded these observations when he stopped one evening in a diner: “It was all plastic…the table linen, the butter dish, the sugar and crackers were wrapped in cellophane, the jelly in a small plastic coffin sealed with cellophane. It was early evening and I was the only customer. Even the waitress wore a sponge apron. She wasn’t happy, but then she wasn’t unhappy. She wasn’t anything.”  That’s a striking description: she wasn’t happy, but then she wasn’t unhappy; she wasn’t anything.  It’s also a convicting description.  I fear it describes some of us.  We aren’t happy.  We aren’t unhappy.  We’re not really anything.  If forced to answer honestly when someone asked us, “How are you?” some of us just aren’t sure what we would say.Read More »Slice: Making Jesus The Door of Your Life (Jn. 10:1-21)