Acts 9.1-9 How many of you all have ever seen a blind cave fish? Their name explains most of what you need to know about them. They are fish that live in caves, and are—you guessed it—blind. In fact, they don’t even have eyes. Scientists believe that over time, living in streams and underground […]
Luke 24.1-12 Joanna cried quietly while she walked to the tomb. She and her companions did not need to speak. They knew each other’s grief and pain. There was nothing left to be said. On Friday they had stayed until the bitter end. Watched him breathe his last. Watched the soldiers take him down. […]
Matthew 26.1-5 Judas looked down at the scroll in his hands. It had been delivered quietly, stealthily, by a special messenger, to his hands only. He had figured out an excuse to leave Jesus and the disciples so that he could find a dark corner and read what it said. Now to see it in […]
Luke 19.28-44 Francis of Assisi was your typical spoiled rich kid. He was born in 1181, and spent most of his early years partying and carousing and doing pretty much whatever he wanted. He wore the finest clothes and threw money around like it wasn’t even his…because it wasn’t. His parents were well-off and funded […]
Isaiah 6.1-8 It was the year 740 BCE. King Uzziah was dead, and it was time for a new beginning. Uzziah had been a successful king, at least in terms of worldly values. The economy was booming. The military might of Judah was stronger than it had been in a long time. Uzziah had curried […]
Philippians 4.10-20 How many of you all are familiar with Marie Kondo? She has taken the world by storm with what [she calls] the KonMari method of tidying up our homes. According to Kondo, we need to all clean our homes and purge them of a bunch of our stuff. We don’t need all the […]
Luke 10.38-42 Moira sat staring at the Family Promise board for a long time. There were plenty of slots left, that wasn’t the problem. But when it came time to put her name on one of them, she just felt tired. She had been a regular volunteer so long, so often, that she just assumed […]
Mark 1.32-39 John Baillie’s life and faith were forged in the fires of war. Baillie was born in Scotland in 1886, and thus lived through two world wars that forever impacted his homeland. He was a theologian, a professor, and a pastor and denominational leader in the Church of Scotland, and thus tried to lead […]
Ash Wednesday Psalm 51 Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada was born in 1515 in Ávila, Spain. The woman who we usually call Teresa of Avila lost her mother when she was only eleven. It was an incredibly painful time in her life, but out of that pain, Teresa became a very different person. After […]
John 15.1-8 Let me acknowledge up front this morning that I am not a gardener. I choose plants for our yard based on the lack of care needed for them to grow. So, when I say that I have rose bushes in our front yard, understand that these are not carefully cultivated specimens of exotic […]
