You never know what you’ve got until it’s gone. That was certainly true for me one morning. I had just gotten out of the shower, and I was drying my hair. My towel was over my head and my eyes were closed. When I finished drying my hair and took the towel away, I opened…
A Jesus Centered Community of Scripture, Faith, and Grace
Church Blog (Page 55)
The week before school starts at Florida State is what we commonly refer to as “Go Week.” We spend a lot of time running: running to and from the Baptist Collegiate Ministry center where we cook the meals, running to and from the dorms where we’re helping students move in, running to and from Sam’s…
This past Sunday, I repeated the term “Choose Life” a bunch of times because it fit with where I was going with the sermon for Easter – that we make choices about what we reject as “unlife” so that we can have a more pure experience of “Life-life”. But when it comes to our choices,…
By Campus Missionary Mary Rowley If there’s one thing church ladies are good at, it’s talking. Enter any church on any given Sunday and you will probably witness some chattering women. I’m not saying this to make fun – well, maybe I’m making fun a little. The point is, the wonderful ladies who fill up…
Mary Magdalene went to Peter and John on Easter morning. Presumably, she didn’t go to them and ask, “Will you please come with me to the tomb, and then go home without saying anything?” But that’s what they did. After Peter and John witnessed the fact that Jesus’s body was no longer there, they returned…
This idea is commonly used on crime shows. The police have to exhume a body for a case they’re working on. The medical examiner warns, “This has been in the ground for ten years. Expect the foulest of foul stenches.” Everyone holds their noses as the casket is opened, only to discover that the body……
Today’s portion of Psalm 118 begins with this: “Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (verses 25-26). Sound familiar? It should – these same words were cried out by the crowds on Palm Sunday, celebrated just a few…
“I find God on my motorcycle,” is what he said to me in response to my question about how he interacted with God after telling me that he was a “very spiritual person.” I sort of wondered how fast he thought God was running away from him that he needed to catch up to the…
The temple in Jerusalem was a holy place. It was not meant for everyone to enter, especially to the most sacred places, because of its holiness; only righteous people could enter. Psalm 118 includes a demonstration of how people typically entered the temple. “Open to me the gates of righteousness,” the person outside the temple…
Psalm 118 starts out as an introduction to worship. The leader and the people are speaking to one another. The theme of the worship is clear from the first verse on: “His steadfast love endures forever!” As the worship continues, a speaker comes forward and gives his testimony. “Out of my distress I called on…