This is a repost, in French, of a previous blog entitled, “Sick With Sin, Grace Abounds.”
Je conduisais la voiture l’autre jour dans la campagne qui entoure mon village, une chose que j’aime bien faire pour laisser couler mes pensées – c’est SI bon pour ça, cela me donne l’occasion de me dégager et de réfléchir à la vie. Mes pensées ont continué à venir et couler avant de s’accrocher sur pas mal de poubelles enterrées au fond du lit de la rivière. Ah oui, des péchés passés, des erreurs, et des choses que j’aurais préféré oublier, feindre qu’elles ne…
Daily Bible reading and I have not always gotten along. Back in the day, I used to feel like a bad Christian for going one day without studying Scripture. After I more fully understood God’s message of grace and freedom, I embraced this whole new “just-need-a-break” approach to devotional life.
Don’t get me wrong. I pray all the time – I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have that trust that God is ever-present and actually concerns himself with the smallness of our lives. So when it came to reading the Bible, I would give myself the…
C’mon, we’ve all seen them, those crazy sounding, homeless and half-drunk looking street preachers, holding up giant signs and megaphones, proclaiming the impending wrath of God. Is this really how Jesus engaged society? The teachings of Christ contain universal truths that are life-changing, and my friends who live outside the tradition of my own faith would unabashedly agree with me. Peace, love, respect for one’s fellow man (or woman), and even proper environmental stewardship are principles that stream out of the life of this man who walked the Earth two thousand years ago.
He preached wherever people would listen, wherever…
Several years ago I was on an ICN outreach to Uganda, out in the bush registering kids for child sponsorship. It is a difficult process having to dig into a small child’s painful life, trying to find out why he or she is an orphan or completely destitute and unable to pay the minimal fees required to attend school. But, that is why I was there. In the kids’ minds, the simple act of taking their photograph means that they automatically have a sponsor and will soon be going to school just like everyone else. What they don’t realize…
Last night I spoke at my church’s youth service on the subject of doubt. It is a bit of an awkward topic because, well, admitting that we might not feel, might not believe, this faith, which many of us have professed as long as we can remember, is not generally discussed at church. Yet, the feelings associated with these inner doubts – guilt, shame, pride, fear, inadequacy – run the gamut and must be addressed.
When I was twelve-years-old, maybe thirteen, I signed up for an inner-tubing excursion down the Green River, during a week at family camp. None of…