Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” (Num 6:22-27 ESV) Over the...
This last weekend, 11 freshman stood in front of our congregation, affirmed their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and expressed their intention to journey with our church through life, at least until they move away for college. As part of this moment, we anointed each student with oil and said, “Because you belong to Christ, you belong to us, and we belong to you.” It was incredibly beautiful. Before the service, I...
Today I will be attending a conference on the topic of Just War at the University of St Andrews. Information can be found here: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/divinity/rt/conf/givewar/ I will be blogging in more detail about the conference in two weeks time, but I wanted to get down a few of my thoughts before attending that will hopefully order my own thoughts as well as introduce some of the things I might be thinking about when I write...
Just a few weeks ago, I came home from what has been a mentally and spiritually emptying season of work. The last month had been one of those seasons filled with “pound-your-head-against-the-wall” experiences, the struggle of dealing with apathy amongst your team, and numerous examples where the harder you try, the more things fall apart. After tossing my jacket and tie onto my bed, I sauntered into the living room and sunk into the couch,...
When I heard that we were receiving communion as a church staff, I was thankful. I needed it. I was wearied from two stressful weeks of constant ministry. Lots of counseling, lots of planning, lots of situations in which I had no idea what to do. I was tired. That morning, it had taken everything within me just to get out of bed. Hearing that we would receive communion was a ray of sunshine in...
Growing up in a Filipino-American conservative Protestant church, and having parents who converted from Roman Catholicism (the prevalent religion in the Philippines) to “born-again” Christianity, I was well aware of the ways we disagreed with Roman Catholics – how our faith was about grace, and how their faith was about works. It was an “us” vs. “them” kind of mentality. I learned the ways of how to evangelize to Catholics, to tell them the true...
During my spring break I was able to go on a trip to India with my officemate Chris Brewer and his dad Gary. We began our trip in Imphal, which is the capital of the state of Manipur in the northeast (we weren’t far from the border of Burma). When we arrived it happened to be the start of the nation-wide color festival Holi so we saw people all over town with various smatterings of...
I finally feel free to admit it. I am (mostly) pacifist – I say mostly because my beliefs and thoughts have’t been field tested yet. Before you think I’m crazy and buy me a plane ticket to Pennsylvania to live with the Amish, let me share a few of the reasons why I am pacifist and clear up some misconceptions about pacifism. 1. Where you start determines where you will end, and I want to start...
“Suppose a woman has just received her family’s income tax refund checks, one state and the other federal, in the mail and she loses one. (She swears seeing it on the coffee table yesterday and cannot for the life of her find it today.) Won’t she and her husband turn on all of the lights they own and make a sweep of every room in their entire house, the garage and even the stinky trash...
“It may seem like a Cat Poster, but you must believe,” is one of my favorite quotes in The Lego Movie. In a crisis moment where the protagonist, Emmet, doesn’t know what to do and feels hopeless, his mentor, Vitruvius, tells him to believe, even though it may seem like a cliche from a Cat Poster. (And later in the movie, it turns out that it is actually written on a Cat Poster.) This quote...
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