Baptized Into Christ

Out of nowhere, yesterday a dress was all over my Facebook feed.  Why?  Because it appeared black and blue to some and gold and white to other people (I'm strange I guess, because it looked light blue and gold to me...). The science behind why some see different colors in this instance is pretty well understood , but the idea of people seeing the same thing in different ways was absolutely fascinating to many people.  My wife, being a scrapbooker and having an eye for color, found the dress interesting because how people see colors is important to how she does layouts and how she takes pictures of them.  To others, it was fascinating because they wanted to know the "why" behind it. To me, it wasn't all that interesting.  Except...I just can't help reading things like this through a theological lens. Some see blue and some see white.  Does that mean that both are right?  Nope.  The dress is objectively a certain color.  It isn't "whatever you see.&qu

"Where are you God?" It's a question that has been asked and prayed countless times in the history of humanity.  It's a question we ask when things are bad.  It's a question we ask when we are struggling. "Where are you?" It's a question that has been the starting point for so many people in their "search for God."  Countless attempts have been made to "find" God through meditation, fasting, prayer, pilgrimages, and hard work. But humans were not the first to speak this question; God was.  The very first words spoken by God (actually one word איכה in Hebrew) spoken by God after the fall into sin was not a word of judgment, but a calling to Adam and Eve to return to Him. "Where are you?" God asked Adam and Eve.  Of course God knew where they were.  They question wasn't asked for His benefit, but for theirs.  He was calling them back to Him, even in their guilt.  They had sinned against Him and because of the

Below is what I wrote for our March 2015 newsletter. “Love Must Be Tough” is the title of a book by Dr. James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family.  In his book, Dobson writes concerning marriage and the difficulties of marriage. Isn’t it interesting that it is tough to love the person you chose to be with and to whom you chose to commit yourself?  It isn’t as if you were randomly assigned a spouse.  You chose your spouse!   Yet, love must be tough, because even in this relationship in which we voluntarily choose to commit to loving another person, we struggle to love them. That “love must be tough” is shown in our families as well.  As parents age and their children have to make decisions regarding their care, it is tough for both parents and children.  Yet, children care for parents in spite of how tough it is. If love is tough in a marriage and if love is tough if a family, how much tougher will it be for us in the church?   You don’t choose the church