Living life with steps of faith

Last time I read through Numbers 28 & 29, I had similar thoughts to today's reading - Do we have a rhythm of celebrations & holy gatherings in the church?  We meet regularly on Sundays to worship God; We have Christmas celebrations and recognize Holy week; But do we really have a rhythm?  What if we changed how we behaved as church such that our main gatherings were for specific celebrations and purposes and Sundays became times for small group Bible studies or for individuals to come into the worship space to worship solemnly and individually?  Do I sound too Catholic?  Would this work better in our culture? Imagine having everyone in a Christian community commit to going camping for 8-days (Festival of Tabernacles) and during that time we shared the blessings that God had given us the previous year?  Imagine the whole Christian community stopping everything for one day to fast and to repent (Day of Atonement), not only for our individual sins, but th...

There are times that my arrogance makes it difficult for me to recognize my sins. At other times I realize that things are sins that I hadn't previously recognized as sin. Most of the time though, when I read passages about controlling the tongue, I am convicted of sin. When I was in college the idea of having an accountability partner was a big deal. Staff at our school would talk about meeting with another Christian or a small group of Christians to ask each other questions that would keep us accountable. The problem for my roommate and I when we decided to become accountability partners was that we had no clue what questions to ask each other. The lists provided by the school were not helpful and the questions we created for ourselves were too specific and they touched areas of our lives that we were not yet ready to change. Our hearts were not ready and we had not been given adequete resources. Yesterday I read the assigned lectionary Scriptures for this past Sunday. They ...

It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my fe...