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A Brand-New You
For the Christian, being baptized is not like beginning a new year or a new calendar. It’s not about turning over a new leaf in life. It’s about starting a new life entirely, a life in which everything old has passed away and everything becomes an entirely new creation (2 Cor. 5:17)! Here’s a baptismal Continue reading
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Are you tomorrow?
When I saw the question, I forgot everything else. It was only three words, part of a series of text messages, and may have made sense as part of the whole conversation. But in that first moment, it made no sense at all; it drew me to a place where sense was irrelevant, a place Continue reading
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As Christmas nears
“Joy to the world!” we’re preparing to sing in little more than two weeks, “and heav’n and nature sing” with us, or we with them. We echo joy in heeding the invitation, “Sing choirs of angels, sing in exultation, sing, all ye citizens of Bethlehem” – and of Buffalo and its environs, too. I already Continue reading
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What is truth?
In 1883, Thomas Edison noticed a black dot that would sometimes appear inexplicably near the filament on the inside surface of one of the light bulbs he was examining. It wasn’t a scratch or a spot of soot or dust, and the problem puzzled Edison so much it kept him awake at night. He wanted Continue reading
Arthur Brooks, being too busy, Carl Jung, discovery of the electron, electron, Israel, Jacob at the Jabbok, Jesus’ interrogation, Jesus’ trial, Joseph John Thomson, life’s challenging questions, life’s insoluble problems, living with questions, mysteries of creation, Pilate, questions without answers, the bottom line, Thomas Edison, wrestling with God -
The test of our faith
For a moment last week, I could have imagined myself in Rick’s Café Américain, in Casablanca in the early 1940s. If you’ve seen the movie, you may recall a scene in which some German soldiers in the café start singing “Die Wacht am Rhein,” a German patriotic anthem. Other patrons, sympathetic to the French Resistance, Continue reading
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Swimming in life
It may be the question behind every other meaningful question we ask. One nameless man – a John Doe who could have been any one of us – put it this way when he ran up to Jesus and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17). How do I Continue reading
abundant life, Anthony de Mello, attitude of gratitude, banquet of heaven, before it’s too late, blessings and burdens, blessings of life, eternal life, faith, give thanks in all circumstances, God, Good Teacher, Gospel of Thomas, hard-knock life, heaven, Jesus, kingdom of God, now or never, Orphan Annie, perfect life, the future, the gospel, the Great Banquet, the ocean, two ocean fish -
Streams in the desert
“Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear! . . . For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert” (Isa. 35:4-7a). If you’re anything like me, you’re looking for some good news. Not the two minutes of it you get at the end of Continue reading
afraid, Albert Camus, Ben E. King, courage, experience of being of alive, fear, fear of death, God moves in a mysterious way, good news, I asked for strength, in the midst of trouble, Inayat Kahn, Joseph Campbell, meaning for life, rapture of being alive, Stand by Me, streams in the desert, The Fall, waters in the wilderness, William Cowper
The Sauntering Pilgrim 