So I'm working on a wedding sermon for a couple of young friends. As I have been increasingly aware of my old-geezerness, I'm tempted to offer all kinds of advice. A sort of Poor Richard's Almanac for marriage. But the truth is, marriages are all different, and people are all different, and the challenges they face are all different. There's only ONE thing that will be the same in every single marriage on earth...

(I'm back from vacation, working from my hotel room at the synod convention in Houston. Internet access is $10 per day here, so these blog postings finally have a real monetary value!)

Jesus replied to a man who wanted to know how to be saved, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?" The man answered, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself." And then Jesus said, "You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live."

"Do this and you will live." 

Good grief! Have you thought about what Jesus said here? "Do this and you will live." He makes it sound so simple. Even with his parable, he only touches on our love (or lack of it) for our neighbor in the example of the Samaritan. But what about the first half of the command?...

As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.

God talks about the city of Jerusalem in highly emotional terms. And obviously, even today Jews, Christians, and Muslims can all be very passionate about this city. But why?

Do you feel that strongly about your old home town?

Perhaps it's because I've moved around so much, but I don't really feel that way. In fact, I sometimes struggle to know how to answer when people ask where I'm "from". Well, I grew up through elementary school in LaPorte, Indiana, so I'm a Hoosier. But I was born in Rockford, Illinois (so I'm a "sucker," my dad said). But then I lived in Wisconsin for several years. Does that make me a Badger? And I've lived in Michigan more years than any of those places, but "Michigander" is the least interesting of all the nicknames.

What difference does it make? How does it change your view of...

Finally! It took me a long time, but after many requests I have figured out how to post a lot of the pictures from my trip to Sudan. Let's see if I can figure out how to embed a slide show directly into this blog post...

OK, it seems to be working. But it doesn't seem to start at the beginning. Sorry about that. I hope you can make sense of it anyway! You can go here to see a full-size version of the slides show.

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.

We had a great discussion about these verses yesterday in our staff meeting. It revolved around the paradox in the text, the idea that we're free to serve. If we have to serve other people, how can we say we're free? And if we're called to be free, then why can't we go use our freedom to serve ourselves?

Of course, the theological answer is...

"What are you doing here, Elijah"

Wow, sometimes I wonder. Is it that the Holy Spirit arranges for the Word to be eerily appropriate for my circumstances each time I read it? Or is it that passages like this just ALWAYS fit?

Nobody is trying to kill me, but I still think I know how Elijah felt. Do you? Certainly he had seen God's power. He should have had no reason to worry. But it was all just too much. He was overwhelmed...

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus..."

People really seem to focus a lot on identity these days. Did our ancestors spend so much time asking the question, "Who am I?...

To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, "Here am I, here am I."

How do you picture God?

Lots of people, especially non-Christians, think that the Bible gives two very different pictures of God, one in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. And they think that the OT God is red-faced, angry, judging, and far above us, while the NT God is loving, kind, merciful, and just generally a nice guy.

Nobody ever seems to picture God as eager, pleading, anxious for us to love him...

Where does sin come from?

I've been wondering about this lately. The story of David's sin with Bathsheba is a famous one (although the story of his repentance is a lot less famous), but I don't think I've ever heard anyone explain WHY David sinned? How did things get so far out of hand?...

I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

In classical rhetoric there are three types of argument: the argument from emotion (pathos), the argument from logic or reason (logos), and the argument from authority (ethos). We use the first two a lot. But we use the third approach when someone will not listen to reason. That's when we say, "Because I'm the parent, and I say so!"

On more than one occasion, Paul had to defend his authority to speak...