Cross and tomb go together in the Christian gospel: both were occupied for a short span, both abandoned, both defeated. The apostle Paul, who knew what it was to suffer for choosing to be associated with Jesus, said, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in […]
[Excerpt from upcoming book, Spiritual Influence: The Hidden Power Behind Leadership] When we are honest we will admit to God and to the appropriate people in our lives when we have failed. There is just no reason to hold back—though almost every one of us does. (This is not to say that one’s failures are
Dealing with a Sense of Failure Read More »
The single sentence that came crackling through the radio signal from almost a quarter-million miles from Earth sounded simple, even routine. “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” The three crew members of the Apollo 13 spacecraft circling the moon knew that something had gone terribly wrong with their spacecraft after hearing the sound of an explosion
Building Past Failure Read More »
[continued from last week’s e-newsletter, “The Most Wonderful Tomb” ] Any of us can choose whether to hope that we have enough gold in the tomb to make ourselves comfortable in the coffin, or whether we have the vivifying Spirit of Christ filling the decayed parts of our lives now, and carrying us along with the
Riches Beyond Riches Read More »
A while back a colleague put me on the spot in a group by asking me: “why don’t you tell the folks how it is that you stay optimistic even in the face of great difficulties.” I instantly felt unusually self-conscious. My first instinct was to say, “because the alternative is unthinkable.” But then I
Is It Naive to Be Optimistic? Read More »
Howard Carter and a few workmen made their way down an ancient 30-foot passageway cut into the rock in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. For over 3,000 years, no human had stepped down that corridor. At the end, Carter began cutting a hole in the door until he peered inside and saw “wonderful
The Most Wonderful Tomb Read More »
In his book, The Cruciality of the Cross, P. T. Forsyth wrote, “Christ is to us just what his cross is. All that Christ was in heaven or on earth was put into what he did there…Christ, I repeat, is to us just what his cross is. You do not understand Christ til you understand
Promise of Paradise Read More »
I was walking through the tiled corridor of the history building at the University of Wisconsin, having just finished teaching a class, my mind focused on pressing ahead to the cafeteria for a bite to eat. But my way was blocked by a cluster of twenty or so students who stood motionless and quiet, staring
It is hard to make sense of chaos. That is because chaos, by definition, is non-sensical. Disorder and confusion, anger and fear, anxiety and despair—these are the fruits of chaos. Too much chaos and the always-tentative ordering of a society shows fractures opening ever wider. Could it all lead to collapse? That is unthinkable, but
Making Wrong Things Right Read More »
Jesus in English, Yeshua in Hebrew, is a name that means “salvation.” As Joseph heard from an angel in a dream regarding Mary, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” There are two sides of salvation: the
What Jesus REALLY Did Read More »
At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst. -Aristotle If you walked the streets of Berlin in early May of 1945, you may have felt like you were striding a thin line between earth and hell. Smoldering fires, piles of bricks where neoclassical buildings
It Is Not Too Late Read More »
Ask yourself, just for a moment, what you really believe is going to happen as history unfolds in ever-greater extremes. Charles Dickens’ famous opening passage from A Tale of Two Cities begins this way: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the
The Future Salvation We Need Read More »
In the cross and in the resurrection, God wins. God has won the war, though the battles continue. He has sent his grace, his unstoppable intent to pour out mercy and kindness, to the human race like food flowing into famine and water into parched mouths.
This is the final devotional in the series Knowing Him: An Easter Devotional (view all days) Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other
More than a hundred leaders from many different countries have come to Elmbrook over the past six years for The International Center program. We’ve asked them to send greetings from their part of the world…
The International Center Alumni Read More »