Faith Lift

Advent 2: One of life’s most essential lessons is that we are never meant to go alone. And yet, modern culture pushes us more and more into lonely silos. If Ruth had followed her culture’s norms, she would have gone home to her family of origin after her husband died, but instead, she commits herself to her mother-in-law, Naomi. Together they form a new family and covenant. Ruth and Naomi travel t...

Advent 1: The Advent journey unfolds like a well-worn quilt, each patchwork piece lovingly threaded across time and space. In each thread, we find blessed assurance that with every sacred stitch, God has been moving toward us all along. This season reminds us that, what some may see as discarded scraps, the Maker of heaven and earth calls beautiful and blessed. Mary, an ordinary girl from the obsc...

Every parent knows that their kids are going to ask questions. They just pray that the questions are ones they can answer. Jesus was asked a question that he didn’t answer. But he had already challenged his interrogator as to whether he “belonged to the truth.” What did he mean?

In football they measure the forward progress of a team by using the "sticks" that measures 10 yards for a first down. How do we measure our progress in our faith?

All around the world every day there are earthquakes. Some we feel some we don't. But it is the faith quakes of life that cause us to have little faith in the midst of struggle and stress. How do we handle those times the shaking of our faith.

To being fully Wesleyan in terms of our financial stweradship , we need to earn all we can, save all we can and give all we can.

With so much data on our smartphones, or available via our smartphones, it’s no wonder that we’re constantly checking the phone. But the techy programs to which we’re attached and which provide so much information and knowledge, cannot be more important than the visible world around us that provides so much data and knowledge about the Creator who made everything possible. Think about it: We are i...

What can we do when we’re not happy with God? Navigating darkness can be difficult, whether it’s driving down a country road in the middle of the night or getting through a dark night of the soul. Job might have jumped at the chance to try a pair of modern night vision goggles to help him find God, but what we all need is faith when God cannot be seen.

New NCAA rules are turning kids into instant millionaires. College-level and professional athletes are receiving enormous compensation for their NIL:  name ,  image  and  likeness . Using this same rubric, how might we assess the work of Jesus Christ?

James tells us, “The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective,” but how do we measure that effectiveness? We need to understand that the act of prayer can strengthen our spiritual relationships, and God can provide healing in a form that may differ from the solution we prayed for.

Our lives as we reach adulthood and onward are filled with aspirations and challenges, experiences and pain that drags us downward and discourages us from believing in beauty, love, kindness, and forgiveness. Before you know it, we can become bitter and cautious about others and guarded about ourselves. We need to re-remind ourselves what it feels like to be child-like –to trust, to believe, to lo...

The Goldfish Mobile, Mr. Peanut’s Nut Mobile, the Peeps Car and the Kissmobile have at one time or another have hot the roads creating good will and good advertising. These odd autos raise the question of how one best advertises our faith.

This text contains a remarkable exchange between Jesus and a woman. It's remarkable because Jesus' "sparring partner" is: a) a woman, b) a Gentile and c) a person whom Jesus appears to insult. What's happening here?

The apostle James uses a a mirror as a metaphor in Chapter 1. What type of mirror did he have in mind? We know that mirrors come in all shapes and sizes and have many uses. Natural mirrors exist, too, like the incredible Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. Yet, James makes a strong case for a different mirror, perhaps more powerful than any other. He calls it a “perfect” mirror, and for good reason.

Senior citizens are taking martial arts classes where they learn how to use their everyday walking canes as self-defense weapons. Paul teaches a similar class in Ephesians 6, reminding us that it's the simple things that Christians carry with them every day that can be our best defense against spiritual attack.

Artists who create sculptures in the sand don’t have long to appreciate their work. The tide washes it away within hours. They’ve discovered the meaning of living in the moment — of redeeming the time. In the brief time we have on earth, how are you letting God scultp you to show his glory?

In his best-selling book,  Outliers , Malcolm Gladwell, the author of  The Tipping Point  and  Blink , and staff writer for  The New Yorker , says that people who are fabulously successful have almost always put in more than 10,000 hours of practice time in activities related to their success. What if we applied this rule to the practice of living faithfully as Christians?

Are you looking to shed a few pounds but don’t like feeling hungry? Keto, caveman and intermittent fasting diets aren’t working for you? Jesus has a bread-of-life diet that offers complete satisfaction, purpose and eternal life — and you’ll never feel hungry or thirsty again.

We’re all familiar with the feeding of the 5,000, five loaves and two fish. But there’s more to the story. When the disciples are terrified on a stormy sea, Jesus offers them the miracles of provision and peace by telling them that he is everything they’ll ever need.

Paul came to speak plainly about Christ. So as I begin this new appointment with this new church and its people, I will look to keep it simple: Jesus and who he was and Jesus and what he did 1 Corinthians 2:1-9

Isn't it amazing how great your voice sounds in the shower? There are three different realities involved in hearing the sound of our own voice. 1. There's what we THINK we sound like. 2. There's what we ACTUALLY sound like. 3. There's what OTHERS think we sound like. Pentecost is the day on which the disciples finally found their voice. And yet it wasn't their own voice they fo...

Jesus’ last words were a promise of power from on high. But he spoke again through the apostles on the day of Pentecost, and he continues to speak today in those inspired moments when the church reaches beyond its human nature and reflects the Divine.

The pitch clock was a game changer for Major League Baseball. Does God have a pitch clock to speed up our understanding of love? People lived by complex religious regulations for centuries. But then, people of faith discovered that love is the heart of God’s will, and the focus of our faith should be to love one another as God has loved us.

Like breathing in and out, inhaling and exhaling, this extension of divine love to others is not something we need to advertise. Reaching out with compassion and concern to our brothers and sisters is to be part of our daily “sacrifice of praise,” our daily life. It is not a meritorious moment. It is a minute-by-minute lifestyle. Giving hands and feet to God’s love is what God’s children are to do...

Just as children develop a healthy imagination, children of God are called to imagine themselves being formed in the image of Christ, having power over sin and love for God and neighbor.