Job fires back. “I’m as good as you are, better even” (vs 1-2). But that doesn’t seem to do Job any good at all. He is still in deep trouble. People have nothing but contempt for him.
We rarely get ourselves out of trouble by claiming that we are better than others—or even by being better than others.
Read More sovereignty, authority
Temples. Holy places. Sacred spaces. We multiply shrines and worshipping places throughout the world in order to commune with the divine. Unfortunately, they often substitute for a true way to God.
Read More authority, glory, Temple, fellowshipSometimes I don’t understand Jesus. Here he has been healing people, blessing people, astonishing people—his ministry is growing. To borrow a phrase from Malcolm Gladwell, Jesus has reached his “tipping point.” It seems a strange time to go to the lake.
It is surprising. Just when things really start to get going Jesus goes on retreat.
Read More authority, leadership, confidenceEven though Jesus doesn’t answer their question, he answers their question. John the Baptist had his authority from heaven, as everyone with any spiritual insight recognized. The leaders couldn’t deny John the Baptist’s authority, plus they were afraid of the people, so they refused to say that his authority was from human beings. On the other hand, they couldn’t admit that John the Baptist’s authority was from heaven, because that meant acknowledging that Jesus’ authority was from heaven, too.
Read More authority, heartUp until this point, Jesus was the only one teaching and doing miracles in his ministry. Now Jesus hands over the baton. He passes his authority on to the disciples, delegating them to take over what he’s been doing. How exciting! What pressure!
The assignment may have seemed daunting (who likes making cold calls?) and risky (going on a trip with no money?).
Read More obedience, success, authority, delegation‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself,’ is how Franklin D. Roosevelt put it when marshaling his nation for the hardships of the Second World War.
Roosevelt understood that the battle is not only out there in the world, but inside, in a deeper place in the individual spirit. If the battle can be won ‘in here,’ it can then be won in the trenches and skies and waters of ‘out there.’
Read More fear, authority, security, confidenceTemples. Holy places. Sacred spaces. We multiply shrines and worshipping places throughout the world in order to commune with the divine. Unfortunately, they often substitute for a true way to God.
With time, and given the human sinful condition, even the Jerusalem temple – built at God’s command – became a place of idolatry and commerce.
Read More authority, glory, Temple, fellowship
As I write it is raining. Rain is so beautiful as it falls, so musical as it strikes the roof, and life giving, that is, as long as it arrives in a Goldilocks kind of way, not too much, not too little, but just right. Just a drizzle and the ground is only dampened, but a driving rain can wash away the little seeds leaving no crop and perhaps no topsoil so necessary for fertility.
Read More authority, leadership, discernment
Read Reflect The rising generation known as “millennials” is very attuned to and concerned about power – power as it is exercised in gender relations, in religion and perhaps most of all, the dynamic relationship of power and money. These who began adulthood somewhere around the turn of the century are aware that as they […]
Read More authority, power, righteousness, money