Toxic church – and a promise of real belonging
Long ago and still today, God promises his traumatized, grieving, scattered people: I will be a sanctuary to you. I will protect you. I will gather you back.
Long ago and still today, God promises his traumatized, grieving, scattered people: I will be a sanctuary to you. I will protect you. I will gather you back.
People like King Ahab spend their lives using and abusing others, to get what they want. They also mesmerize and misdirect us, so we won’t see them as they are.
In a distressing time in my life, God gave me an oasis of joy. At Sukkot, he invited me into the joy that is at once bedrock and a bubbling, underground spring.
"How long will you try to go both ways?" Elijah cried. Where people identified with God cling to deep double-mindedness, they empower a two-headed snake.
Shame can torment and shackle us. Yet Jesus bore our sins. He bore our pain. He teaches us how to face and deal with shame, so freedom and favor can flow.
“I am weak, but he is strong.” When we know that, ahh, then we can learn to speak and write the powerful words given to us by the Spirit of Christ within us.
Spiritual exhaling releases what God breathes into you, for the building of his kingdom and the honor of his name. Exhaling the Breath of God, you release life.
As you inhale, you’re filled with breath. As you inhale spiritually, you’re filled with the Breath of God. Spirit-to-spirit, you receive his life.
As breath is vital to the body, being filled with the Spirit and living in the power of the Spirit are vital to life in Christ.
Oh Lord, our Lord, you commanded this blessing to be spoken, because you want to give it. How we need it! Breathe your blessing into us in a new, deeper way.