In his book The Cross and the Prodigal, Kenneth Bailey references a tradition carried out in ancient Palestine whenever a family member who leaves the community, wastes their inheritance among outsiders (Gentiles), and dares to come home. It was called the kezazah ceremony. The patriarch leaders of the community would bring a large pot and smash it in front of the wayward relative to ...
Marian Webster defines Meek as : having or showing a quiet and gentle nature : not wanting to fight or argue with other people The full Definition includes: enduring injury with patience and without resentment, deficient in spirit and courage, not violent or strong I have to tell you when I read this definition of meek there is nothing in my carnal desire that would make we valu ...
My wife and I often marvel at how messy our kids can be. We are shocked that they simply can not see the sock they left on the floor or their soccer bag in the middle of the garage. There is ALWAYS someone in the kitchen eating something and we are ALAWYS out of something and in need of going to the market. The walls get marks on them, my landscaping gets trampled, and I can not even ...
My friend recently wrote a song out of Psalm 40. He sent it to me to get my feedback on some of the lyrics. The song is FANTASTIC! In reading the lyrics, I went through Psalm 40 and I thought I would share a few thoughts. 1 - David seems to understand something about God that I believe we trivialize. David lives under the old covenant, but his Psalm is so incredibly reliant on God' ...
This past Sunday, our pastor gave such an amazing message that really challenged me. His sermon was out of Luke 15 and he was speaking on the parable of the prodigal son. There are so many messages out there about this parable. Our pastor pointed out that this was the finale in a series of three parables. The first being about a shepherd that lost 1 sheep out of his 100 that he was ...
I had a pretty awesome conversation with my wife the other day. She brought of this passage in Ephesians 2: 1-10: 1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them ...
