the Way, the Truth, and the Life

9 Jesus also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else.  10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: extortionists, unrighteous people, adulterers - or even like this tax collector.  12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.'  13 The tax collector, however, stood far off and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am!'  14 I tell you that this man went down to his home justified rather than the Pharisee.  For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."  -   Luke 18:9-14  The Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector.  From www.Internetmonk.com This is a parable that I find myself going back to c...

What happens when  I wait for things to happen, not much.  Nothing really happens.  But when I take what has been given me and run with it, things happen.  And this not of my doing, so that I would boast about it.  It is all given to me from God, and yet I squander much of what is going for me.  Christ is just too important to be taken advantage of.  I don't simply want His grace alone, I want to be able to run with that grace that has been given, with the peace that passes all understanding.  This is true witnessing of Christ, that what has been restored restores others.  That what has been given is shared.  Then, and only then, is someone curious as to where I got this grace from. 

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a rundown, inner-city store.   It is open all the time yet not many enter in.   The paint peeling away on the one side of the building, the dilapidated awning, and only a couple parking spots in the front on the street deter many passing by from checking it out.   On the inside, it is part café, part coffee shop, part book store.   Much time is spent there for those who do enter into the store.   Many relationships are deepened with conversation that goes late into the night and people come to realize who they are more and more.   Causes are taken up to paint the plumber’s store across the street, to clean up someone’s mother’s yard, to take in the drug addict on the street.   And all the more, these people come to realize who they are. But people keep passing by.   People who attend churches painted well, with covered doorways, and a sea of parking available.   And no relationships are developed. But in th...

I find myself freed from something I created on my own.  It was the entrapment from what I thought was school and the push towards that goal.  When I finished my last class, with just my masters essay to go, I went to work the next day.  And that's when it washed over me that I could do anything I wanted; start another band; join a gym; begin recreational reading; become an avid bowler.  So many choices that are now available to me all of a sudden!     As quickly as that wave of emotion came, what followed was a profound question.  What stopped me from doing all that before?  I know that I may have literally been busy, but the more I realized what was hitting me I understood that it wasn't that all those ambitious things were not available to me to do, but that instead it was that I prevented them.  And more so, I was emotionally stopped.  It was the feeling of burden, and for no more reason then that I was in a self imposed ...

New header, new colors, revamped blog, again.  Detroit skyline of a picture I took when I was up on a building listening to a lecture about how to reinvent Detroit's urban landscape with art, or the artscape if you will.  I hope to speak of restoration that happens in places we do not expect.  As Detroit begins to turn corners, it is possible to witness even our lives turn corners, to claim victory with means beyond the walls we live in.  The Kingdom of Christ beckons to restore the worst of things, to set free the imprisoned. Here is a part from the Thrice song "The Earth Will Shake" that inspired my subtitle for the blog: Heartbroken, we found a gleam of hope Harken to the sound, a whistle blows Heaven sent reply, however small Evidence of life beyond these walls Born and bred in this machine Wardens dread to see us dream We hold tight to legends of Real life, the way it was before 

This may be a post where I am part convincing myself, part convincing the reader.  Maybe I should not look at it like that at all, and just spell this out. God.  It does all come down to relationship.  I was talking with a friend of mine a week ago about what makes a Christian Christian.  What separates the greatest humanitarian atheist from a meek, non-confrontational, addict-overcoming Christian is echoed in this statement: "I don't know you."  This is found in some parables explaining how God will look at some people who will cry out for Him.  But how can the God who created not know His creation?  I would venture to say the same way a wife may turn to a husband at some point in the marriage and say, "I don't even know anymore." Either asleep at the wheel follower or atheist, both are missing the relationship with Jesus.  I find this term something of a given since it has been injected into my head over and over growing up in the church, bu...

Freshly Painted Shed at Warren and Trumbull I took a stroll this morning, at about 9:30am, in the neighborhood I am moving away from.  After two years in the wonderful Detroit neighborhood, Woodbridge, it is only starting to come across how amazing this place is.  For sure it has benefited from being adjacent to Wayne State University, although in a love hate relationship (WSU was about to rip through it in the '80s, but some professors stepped up to the plate and started buying homes, see the website on the building to the right ). As I walked around, I saw the old St. Dominic church accessory building being renovated by the new church plant that is going on by  The Citadel Detroit (watch the video in the link).  They are creating something called "The Dream Center."  Can't wait to see what this will come to, but what I do know is that the lead pastor will be a speaker at this year's Christian Community Development Association national conference, so he m...