Isn’t He Rightly Named Jacob?

Our Lenten exercise this year is to put off those things that keep us from Holiness and one of the greatest practices of our hearts is the art of deceit. You and I can so easily convince ourselves of our righteousness, justifying every one of our actions and thoughts and saying that God understands, that [...]

Sacrifice Your Soul

Nearly one full week of this glorious Lenten season has passed and many feel the pangs from the sacrifice of chocolate or television but what of those who have sacrificed their life, the control of their soul given fully to the King of Kings. Isaiah speaks of the sacrifice of Christ, the King James version [...]

Lent Sunday One

Our reflection for the first Sunday of Lent this year comes from Daniel.
So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.
I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed:
“O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love [...]

Lent with Joel

Our reflection today is short and simple; the call of the Lord is for all of His children to return to Him from whatever distance we have placed between us.
“Even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
for [...]

Lent with Leonard

The Church can ask herself today, is this what our Savior sacrificed His life for? Did He give us the Church so that we can be comfortable, occasionally running guerilla missions out into the world and then returning to the safety of the sanctuary? As I think about the spiritual state of much of today’s [...]

Lent Begins

Traditionally, we surrender a creature comfort or habit as a way of associating our lives with the impending sacrifice and suffering of our Savior. We willingly give up a behavior, a food, or something similar in sacrifice, longing for Easter’s arrival not only to celebrate the resurrection but the freedom to return the sacrifice to [...]

Coming Down from the Hillside - Good Friday Reflection

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

When Jesus clambered down the hillside after delivering the final words of His sermon, we can feel the silence envelop him. All those eyes and ears [...]

Higher on the Hillside - Lent Reflection 26

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Jesus the Encourager begins the closing thoughts of his incredible sermon. He knows that [...]

Higher on the Hillside - Lent Reflection 25

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

Radical Jesus gives the first of the summary statements in His sermon by giving the Golden Rule for how we are to treat one another. Its utter simplicity is meant to cut through [...]

Higher on the Hillside - Lent Reflection 24

 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks fins; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Jesus, as he begins to conclude His Sermon on the Mount, urges His disciples to [...]