You could hear the whispers of the townspeople – “Did you see whose back? Is that Mary’s son?” When Jesus returned to his old stomping grounds in Mark 6, the townspeople identified Jesus as “Mary’s son”. Normally, a man is identified as the son of his father. Some suggest that by identifying Jesus as “Mary’s son” they were maligning him – making reference to rumors around his birth. Either way, they thought they had Jesus pegged – simply a local boy. Consequently, this limited what Jesus wanted to do for them and in them. The people of Nazareth already knew of Jesus’ miracles...

“As He moves about He leaves behind him a trail of transformed scenes and changed situations – fisherman no longer at their nets, sick people restored to health, critics confounded, a storm stilled, hunger assuaged, a dead girl raised to life. Jesus’ presence is an active and instantly transforming presence: He is never the mere observer of the scene or the one who waits upon events but always the transformer of the scene and the initiator of events.” W. H. Vanstone, Canon Emeritus of Chester Cathedral, describes the effects of Jesus ministry well in his modern classic work, The Stature...

Hearing quite a commotion, a mother walked into the next room to find her two children in a terrific fight. Finally pulling her daughter off of her younger son, she asked, “Why did you let the Devil put in into your heart to pull your brothers’ hair and kick him in the shins?” The little girl thought for a moment and said, “Well, maybe the Devil put it into my heart to pull my brother’s hair, but kicking him in his shins was my own idea.” It’s important to have the understanding and honesty of the little girl. We are very capable of doing awful things on our own. Nevertheless Satan...

“Then he isn’t safe?” asked Lucy. “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” I love this scene in C. S. Lewis’ classic book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. You can sense the children’s nervousness about meeting Aslan, the great lion (who represents Jesus), as they visit with the Beavers in Narnia. Perhaps you struggle with feeling like your life really matters to God the way you intellectually know it does. Maybe you believe His promises work...

While Elli and I were dating, I liked to spend time with her dad as well. (Knowing I would someday ask him for Elli’s hand in marriage, this would be time well invested.)  His hobby was his green house.  Any given time you entered his green house, you would see bags of dirt. On one occasion, while sitting on those bags of dirt, talking about life, I asked him, “Why do you pay for dirt, when dirt is everywhere?” Here is the gist of what he said: Experienced gardeners understand the value of putting money and effort into improving the soil before they even consider planting. Garden soil will...