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Ash Wednesday: How Death Reminds Us of Grace

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This past Sunday, we wandered away from our passage for a few minutes to look at the words of Jesus from Matthew 25:41-46. It was the section about the final judgement, and in that section, Jesus compares those who will recieve eternal life with those who will receive eternal death: Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.Fo...

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Advent: Using Handel's "Messiah" as an Advent Devotional Guide

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Everyone has family Christmas traditions. I'm sure one of yours instantly was brought to mind. After years of Alexandra and I trying to establish our own for our kids, we have finally discovered one that was an instant hit, and that is being repeated as we speak - hopefully to be repeated year after year: Using Handel's "Messiah" as a sort of Advent Devotional Guide for ...

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Can This Be Our Cathartic Moment? (Saint Augustine and our current fragile state of America)

This is not the first time the Church has faced a crisis. Let's look back at Saint Augustine's ministry to the Church during the sack of Rome in 410 A.D., and examine his pastoral, Gospel-centered message that still relevant to us today....

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Lingering in the Text: Reading in the Presence of God

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I've been slowly working my way through John's Gospel over the last month or so, and the other morning I found myself in chapter 4. Before opening up my Bible, I sat silently before God for a few minutes. I then asked Him to teach me, to guide me through the passage. I started to read. I was in v.v. 46-54. I read it once out loud to myself. Inoticedthat Jesus came back to ...

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Curiously Numb

On April 20, 1999, 15 people were killed in Littleton, Colorado at Columbine High School. I was 16 years old, and I remember sitting on the couch in my parents sun room for hours watching the footage unfold. I was terrified, angry, sad, and confused. It was all consuming for me. I had so many questions, and sadly there were few if any real answers. I don't believe I was a ...

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When Death is At Hand: Reflections on Lent and Ash Wednesday

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It was the beginning of the pandemic, and we were still living up in Sayreville. We can all remember the fear, the anxiety, wiping down our groceries with sanitizer wipes. It was a stressful time, mostly because we didn't know what was going on. We watched the news, obsessing over the numbers. We were inundated with information about how many people were infected and how m...

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Chaos Dressed in its Sunday Best

I'm not too sure how to say what I want to say. It is January 7, 2021, and we are a day removed from the events that transpired in our nation's capital. There are so many things I could say in this post. I could talk about the violence that occurred, as a protest turned riot found its way into the Capitol Building, how first responder's lives were put at risk, how a woman ...

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What is Advent?

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Jesus says in Matthew's Gospel that "the kingdom of heaven is like atreasurehidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Thenin his joyhe goes andsells all that he hasand buys that field" (Matthew 13:44). In the world of Facebook Marketplace and eBay, selling isn't as easy as it sounds. I know I personally have items that have been on eBay for months, without a si...

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Some Thoughts on the Eve of The Election

On the eve of what many are calling, the most important election in recent history, I believe that we as Christians have an enormous opportunity to show the world what God is like. Before I unpack that, let me first explain what I don't mean. There is an enormous amount of fear surrounding this election. What if we become a socialist country? What if we lose our religi...

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The Upside Down Kingdom: An Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount

The Upside-Down Kingdom: An Introduction When I first became a Christian, I very quickly learned the acronym, WWJD? (What Would Jesus Do?). That was the question, and still is the question, followers of Jesus are trying to answer? How in the world are we to live this life as Christians? What are we supposed to do? Why are we supposed to do it? What are we allowed to do, a...

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