I hate commercials so much that I only watch free TV shows on Amazon Prime, which means I see things years after most people.  I doubt many will remember this scene from season four of Grey’s Anatomy where George and Izzie are trying to talk to Dr. Bailey. Bailey is staring off into the...

  Throughout Jesus’ parables,  He refers to “The Kingdom of Heaven” and “Kingdom of God”.  Here are the ones I came across in my search, perhaps not complete but as you can see there are a lot of parables about The Kingdom. The Parable of Weeds among the Wheat  Matthew...

I am reading and reflecting on Cynthia Bourgeault’s book, “The Wisdom Jesus.”  It is one of the most challenging and thought provoking books that I have read in a long time.  Some of her insights are profound and others just make me run for the Tylenol to keep my head from...

Yesterday I shared these words from the AA Big Book, “I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God’s world by mistake.” Today, I am wondering if I...

I have not had much time this summer to write but I was blessed a few weeks ago to have an opportunity to preach at Northminster Church on one of my favorite topics – Christian Hospitality. Click here to listen to the...

Jesus says, “follow me” more than twenty times in the Gospels but he never says, “worship me.” Yet every week, devout Christians give an hour or more of their time to worship Jesus.  I wonder how much time we give to actually following Jesus? The vast majority of church resources are...

I have never been one for “spiritual warfare.”  I have always felt I was more a stateside warrior preparing the troops for battle.  When people start talking about binding up evil spirits or casting out demons, I get the creeps and duck out of the conversation.  I am not saying I...

My 13 year old daughter, Caroline,  is just starting to try to understand the different labels we ascribe to people in our society.  In her civics class, they had the children take a test to determine how “conservative” or “liberal” they were in their belief system.  Like her...

In this political season we are hearing a lot about flip-flopping, politicizing and pandering.  It does often seem that the candidates say one thing in one setting and spin things differently in front of a different audience. Last week President Obama came out in favor of same-sex marriage....

My family is celebrating Easter, which happens to fall on my husband’s birthday, at a condo on the beach in Top Sail Island, North Carolina.  This is the view from my balcony this morning: Last night my family played the game Apples to Apples and one of the words was the word,...

I recently heard a pastor say that the most important question a church can ask itself is, “What would it look like if God’s kingdom were to become fully manifest in our neighborhood, our city, our nation and our world?” I would add that the second most important question a church can...

In January 2012, at the invitation of Northminster Church, my Embrace Richmond team started a new work in Richmond’s north side (specifically the neighborhoods bordering Brookland Park Boulevard from Moss Side to North Avenue.) The first phase of any new community development effort is...