Church Blog (Page 6)

When we encounter everything that is colorful and bizarre in the book of Revelation (which would more appropriately be called a letter), it is the approach of some to “decode” its strange symbols, maybe even decode and interpret them as current or near future events we might see in the news. But when we read Revelation 1 and meet a Jesus whose eyes are on fire, whose feet are metal, whose voice roars like crashing waves, from whose mouth protrudes…

Life in God is not a matter of being knowledgeable enough or obedient enough. It’s a matter of being born of God, completely remade by God. The whole self, the entire existence brought into reality by our creator and made perfectly in his image. If you ask John, that’s what it means to be alive. “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child.” (1 John 5:10)…

“God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” – 1 John 4:16 All things begin in love, flow from love, are perfected in love, and return to love. Any tendency we might have had to conceive of love as an object or tool (even a good one) is thrown right out the window. It might not occur to us to conceive of love as that which surrounds us at all times,…

What do you imagine when you hear the word “antichrist?” A monster? A boogeyman? Actually, the term antichrist only appears in the letters of 1 and 2 John (nothing in Revelation as we might have expected), and it has nothing to do with monsters. John gives us a simple enough definition: “Those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh – any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.” (2 John 7) He also says…

We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for each other. – 1 John 3:16 It’s good, essential even, to place things in the proper order. We know what love is because we’ve seen Jesus do it. To know what love is, we don’t look first to ourselves, or even to each other, but first to Jesus. If we can begin to know Jesus, knowing ourselves will…

Nature versus nurture. To what extent are we simply what our innate nature decides we are? And to what extent are we the product of our influences, experiences, and circumstances? It seems like a never ending back and forth. But the third chapter of 1 John is weighing in. “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1) Nature wins out, says John. Children…

There’s a moment in 1 John 2 where the writer erupts into song. “I write to you, children! I write to you, fathers! I write to you, young ones! Because your sins are forgiven! Because you know the Father! Because you are strong! Because the word of God abides in you! Because you have overcome the evil one!” (1 John 2:12-14) John sings the song twice because that’s how we humans best remember things, by putting it in rhythm and…

There’s an interesting back and forth in the Gospel of John. One minute we’re told that the words and miracles of Jesus cause those who see and hear to believe. The next minute, John is telling us that no matter what Jesus does, people just won’t believe. Or maybe they believe, but they feel that Jesus is just too controversial, too radioactive to admit how much they really do believe in him. As the storyteller wrestles with this in John…

We’ve got a couple of greatest hits from Jesus in John 14, some of his most recognizable words. “In my Father’s house are many rooms and I go there to prepare a place for you,” and “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” The latter has unfortunately been often used as a convenient assurance that we are in fact better than all those other religions, even though that’s…

‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Now…

We most readily associate the raising of Lazarus in John 11 with, of course, Lazarus. His name is universally synonymous with resurrection. But someone who doesn’t get nearly enough credit for what a superstar she is in John 11 is Lazarus’ sister, Martha. Almost every memorable thing Jesus says throughout the story he says because Martha has drawn it out of him. It’s because Martha has struck up a conversation that Jesus has this to say: “I am the resurrection…

Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The…