Posts by Gene (Page 12)

Posts by Gene (Page 12)

Sojourns in Solitude: Prayer and the Festal Shout

A wonderful passage in Peter’s second epistle reminds us that God’s “divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” – life to the full (John 10:10b). Peter’s words are a beautiful…

Sojourns in Solitude: The Sound of a Gentle Blowing

Jesus often retreated to a quiet place alone to talk with His Father. As His disciples, we need to do the same. The desert is the best place to evaluate our walk with Him – and to consider our wins and losses. It’s a place for reflection. When the disciples returned from their brief missionary…

Sojourns in Solitude: The Disciples’ Schoolhouse

We need the desert. A quiet place, a retreat. We need a place where we can meet our heavenly Father without distraction. A place to practice silence in the Lord’s presence. A place to listen, as well as to talk. Job said, “Teach me, and I will be silent; and show me how I have erred” (Job 6:24).…

You Are a Gift From God

One of the greatest longings in life is to have a purpose, a reason for living.   This is true for every human being, saved or unsaved.  Read what Marianna Pogosyan, Ph.D. writes, “Belonging can also contribute to a meaningful life, since being a part of a group connotes being a part of something larger, something that expands beyond the boundaries of our own self, thus…

Together, We Reflect the Glory of God

We forget, don’t we? Life has a way of doing that to us. The old cliché that ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ may or may not be true, but, there’s no doubt that familiarity breeds forgetfulness. We can easily forget how much we need and love those closest to us. The relationship we have with our parents and other older family members is a good example of this. We have a…

Prayer – Life’s Anchor

I have to say, I, like many of you, struggled with prayer.  First, you wonder, why should I pray, God knows everything.  Second, you might say, He never seems to answer my prayers so what’s the sense.  Third, I can never stay focused.  I am always distracted.  Fourth, I feel weird when I pray.  We can go on and on with reasons or excuses not to pray.  It seems strange…

The Three Elements of Faith

They committed themselves to the Apostle’s teaching.  When I think of this I think of Romans when Paul wrote, “Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God”.  We as believers are to, “Live by faith” as it says in Hebrews.   However, the concept of faith can be misleading.  Most people, when you talk about faith, think it means a wishful thought, a hope of some…

“Fun, Fun, Fun on Der Autobahn”

You might know the song Autobahn from the band Kraftwerk. It’s a quick little 23 -minute (!) toe-tapper in which they sing in German, “We’re driving, driving, driving on the Autobahn” over and over again to a wash of electronic music. It’s a krautrock classic. To my American ear, it always sounded like they’re singing, “Fun, fun, fun on the Autobahn,” which made for a…

What Do We Remember

As we read 1 Cor 11:23-26 we notice what our Lord said, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” What is it we are to remember?   Could it be the incarnation?  That God took upon flesh?  That He inhabited a body like ours, frail weak and destined for the grave?  Or could it be that He came from glory into this, comparatively speaking, pigpen of a place called earth.  An earth,…

Worship & Sacrifice

It’s impossible to ‘sanitize’ what God asked Abraham to do that day. “He said, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you’” (Genesis 22:5). Abraham knew what this meant. After all, this was not his first offering. There were the material items…