A Baby Lamb’s Christmas Gift

Jesus said to them, “What I’m about to tell you is true. You must eat the Son of Man’s body and drink his blood. If you don’t, you have no life in you. –John 6:53 The early Christians were said to be cannibals, because it was reported they ate and drank the body and blood of their Christ. From the beginning of Genesis and throughout the Old Testament, there is typology and foreshadowing of the substitutionary death for all mankind...

Is a Veneer Sometimes the Best Choice?

The idea of “fake it til you make it” and other forms of positive thinking or “manifesting” is not to be found in the bible, yet, even Christians fall back upon such practices–and especially at the holidays. I have no answers, I suppose. I am about to contribute to the vast number of social media expressions and images that will flood our newsfeed between now and the New Year, too. As we behold all of these things, many of us...

Answering the Call

(cross posted from my studio newsletter, dated yesterday December 1) At 10:21 pm on Thanksgiving evening, as I was laying in bed (early for me) exhausted by so much, I heard my cell phone ringing. I looked at it, and was surprised to see that it was a very elderly woman–a repeat customer over many years–ringing my phone. “This is so odd,” I thought to myself. The woman, who is 93 years old, lives in another state. I had not...

Shock Value and Judges 19

I recently was listening through the book of Judges and a story I had not previously taken particular note of (imagine that, as you read on…) caught my attention for the first time. And a little further reading embedded some new facts into my mind for biblical stories and history. I think a valuable part of truly learning and remembering something is getting to retell it in your own words. I’m going to do that, knowing I may get a...