I pastor a church in Southern California. I preach, teach, and write. I sit with others in their sorrows and their joys. And I walk with people through some of life’s most difficult experiences.
More than any other hymn, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” signals the start of the Advent season. It’s a beautiful piece of music with its haunting tune and lyrics full of longing, anticipation, and hope. Christians have sung this hymn for centuries.
Zack Eswine writes, “Sometimes I greet the morning like a troubled atheist, lost in a god-empty story that cannot handle what frightens me…On such mornings, I need the name of Jesus spoken and his true story told to me afresh.”
Trying to suppress our emotions is like trying to hold a beach ball under the water: it only works for so long. Eventually, one way or another, the emotions shoot back up to the surface. So what should we do with them? The Psalms invite us to be open and unafraid before God with our emotions.
Revenge is off-limits for a Christ-follower because it’s not the way of Jesus. But the desire to get even is so powerful. How do you resist it?
David learned important lessons about the life of faith while on the run from Saul. We need to learn those lessons too.
Last year, the Surgeon General released a report about a major public health crisis. He said the most prevalent health issue in the country isn’t cancer, it isn’t heart disease, and it isn’t obesity. It’s loneliness. The gospel answers our loneliness by pointing us to the true faithful friend, Jesus Christ.
The whole of the Christian life is a season of waiting. We’re waiting for Jesus Christ — our Savior and King — to come again and set everything right. Waiting is difficult. It can eat away at your hope and faith. The Church has been waiting for nearly 2,000 years for Jesus to return, and the longer we wait, the greater the temptation to let go of hope. How can we keep hope alive while we wait?
Rainy, the narrator in Leif Enger’s novel I Cheerfully Refuse, throws a birthday party for his wife, Lark. Friends, neighbors, and even strangers have gathered at Rainy and Lark’s home to celebrate. While his band performs for the gathering, Rainy reflects on what he once hoped the church might be like.
Michael Goheen argues that suffering is a mark of a faithful missional community seeking to follow Jesus in the world.
Lesslie Newbigin describes the church as a pilgrim community on mission to the ends of the earth.
Lesslie Newbigin understands the Church to be the inaugurated end-time new humanity on mission.
A playlist for those who are grieving, hurting, or suffering. It makes space for both lament and hope in our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
A pastoral prayer: “Our God and Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we lift up hearts filled with gratitude to you.”
A prayer based on Psalm 139:11–12 for those who feel alone in the darkness. "Lord God, heavenly Father, I no longer can see your radiant face. The darkness threatens to overwhelm me. I fear it will crush me under its weight. But you see me; you are with me, even in this dark pit."
A pastoral prayer. “Our gracious God and Father in heaven, we thank you for sending your Son to us. We thank you for showing us who you are in Jesus: a God of stunning glory and grace…”
A prayer based on Psalm 39. “Lord God, heavenly Father, our sins are piled up higher than the tops of our heads. They are too heavy for us to bear…”
