Posts with the tag “identity”

Most of us bounce between two errors. We make God small enough to be manageable. Or we make ourselves so small in the scope of everything that we stop believing our lives matter to Him. The Psalm holds both things at once. The heavens are vast. God made them. And He is mindful of you. You are not the center of the universe. And you are not lost in it either. You are known inside it.  Read More

Steven Spielberg made a movie about first contact with intelligent life beyond Earth. But the Bible got there first. And the universe it describes makes the one in Close Encounters look considerably smaller. Job records the sons of God singing at creation. Nehemiah describes the heavenly host bowing before God. Revelation presents angelic beings of staggering variety around the throne. The cosmos has never been empty. It has always been populated, active, and alive. And in the middle of all of that, the Psalmist looks up at the night sky and asks: what is man that You are mindful of him? The bigger the universe gets, the more stunning the answer becomes. Read the full post.  Read More

Iceman pulls Maverick aside and says it plainly: "The Navy needs Maverick. The Kid needs Maverick. That's why I fought for you." Not around you. Not about you. For you. Someone in the room where decisions were being made chose to use their access on your behalf. Zechariah saw a vision of a high priest standing before God with the accuser at his right hand pressing charges. And then the One with all authority said: remove the filthy garments. Put on festal robes. That vision did not end in the Old Testament. Hebrews says Jesus always lives to make intercession. Present tense. Right now. Someone is still in the room. Someone is still fighting for you. Read the full post.  Read More

Every graduation season somebody reads the Dr. Seuss book. The one with the winding road. And the words land the way they always do: "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose." Beautiful. True. And not enough. Because Jesus did not say follow your dreams. He said follow Me. And the generation standing in cap and gown right now is about to discover that the direction they choose matters more than any commencement speech told them. Read the full post.  Read More

There is a moment in every swimming lesson that nobody talks about honestly. The moment the instructor says let go of the wall. Everything in that child says no. The wall is solid. The water is unpredictable. Baptism is that moment. And it is one of the most prophetically loaded things a believer can do in a world that is desperately afraid of what comes next. Because when you went under that water, you were not just getting wet. You were practicing dying. And when you came back up, you were declaring something that death itself cannot argue with. Read the full post.  Read More

What does an empty tomb have to do with your Monday morning? More than you think."  Read More