by David Anderson
Long, long ago I studied French in grad school. It was strictly a “language requirement.” In class, I never had to speak a word of it. All I learned to do was translate French into English. Which has meant over the years that I am pretty good at reading road signs and menus, and very […]
by David Anderson 24 Comments Filed Under: Belief, Change, Conversion, Family
“If you died tonight, where would you spend eternity?” I heard that over and over in the church of my childhood and youth. It was a stock ending to an evangelistic sermon aimed at getting people saved. I grew up in South Dakota, but if you went to a Baptist church in Wisconsin or Washington, […]
by David Anderson 12 Comments Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, Belief, Conversion, Daily Practice, Death/Dying, Faith/Trust, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Prayer/Meditation, Salvation
always knew where this life-in-God was taking him. But his Gethsemane night of agony reveals his deep confusion and misgiving: he didn’t think it would come to this. He falls on his face and prays mightily for God to find another way, sweating blood. Nevertheless, he prays, “not my will but yours be done.” Jesus […]
by David Anderson 8 Comments Filed Under: Belief, Faith/Trust, Lent, Letting Go, Surrender, Transformation, Uncategorized
is known as the “weeping prophet” because he had to carry the people of Israel through the worst time in their history. The Babylonians had besieged Jerusalem, pulled down the temple, stone by stone, and exiled Israel’s leaders. It is the most catastrophic moment in the Hebrew Bible. In the midst of the disaster Jeremiah […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Belief, Change, Conversion, Faith/Trust, Forgiveness, Grace, Gratitude, grief, Lent, Mercy, Surrender, Transformation, Uncategorized
is one more explosive revelation we have safely turned into a children’s Bible story. When God asks Jonah to go preach to the Ninevites—to repent and find God’s forgiveness—Jonah refuses. He’s afraid God will forget all those passages in the Torah about how gentile nations are anathema, and only Israel is God’s choice. Jonah knows […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Anger, Belief, Change, Conversion, Forgiveness, Grace, Lent, Mercy, Surrender, Transformation, Uncategorized
is a heroine of faith because she aspired to something greater than survival. We only meet this Moabite woman because an Israeli family, in the middle of a devastating famine, flees Bethlehem in search of food. Naomi and her husband Elimilech arrive in Moab, their two sons marry Moabite women—Orpah and Ruth—and then all the […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Belief, Character, Conversion, Faith/Trust, Faithfulness, Family, Hope, Lent, Salvation, Vocation/ Calling
are fire walkers. These three young Jewish men were exiled in Babylon because King Nebuchadnezzar had defeated Israel and brought them to his kingdom as captives. Yet like their fellow Israelite, Daniel, the three were recognized as gifted and rose to prominence in the court of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3:1-30). All wonderful—until Nebuchadnezzar did the typical […]
by David Anderson 6 Comments Filed Under: Belief, Faith in Action, Lent, Salvation, Surrender
knew how to turn. That’s why he is a model for us on Ash Wednesday, a day that calls us to turn in a new direction. I mean Peter’s famous vision of a sheet descending from heaven filled with all the animals he was—by law—forbidden to eat (Acts 10: 1-48). A voice from heaven says, […]
by David Anderson 14 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Belief, Bible, Change, Discernment, Forgiveness, Grace, Lent, Repentance, Surrender, Transformation