by David Anderson
is One. The shema, the central affirmation of Judaism, begins: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.” Along with every observant Jew, Jesus prayed those words morning and night. God is One. This week’s “Stories of Simplicity & Joy” all flow from that oneness at the heart of God. God is singular, […]
by David Anderson 5 Comments Filed Under: Awareness, Blessing, Daily Practice, Lent, Love, Prayer/Meditation, Uncategorized
On Saturdays our companions are musicians. I don’t remember when I first heard Mary Gauthier’s “Mercy Now,” but it went straight to my heart. I couldn’t tell what emotion the music was pressing on, but it felt deep and huge. It’s the only song about mercy I’ve ever heard—plenty on forgiveness, but not the depths […]
by David Anderson 7 Comments Filed Under: Family, Forgiveness, Grace, Healing, Lent, Mercy, Music, Suffering, 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 the only outed person at the dinner table. Simon the Pharisee invites Jesus to dinner, but somehow a “woman of the city” catches wind of the soiree and sneaks in the back door carrying “an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing at Jesus’ feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Faith/Trust, Forgiveness, Freedom, Grace, Gratitude, Intimacy, Lent, Love, Mercy, Uncategorized
used to be Saul, and the name change—signaling a new beginning—may have been the only way he could have gone on, could have lived with himself. We first meet him at a murder. Young Stephen is being stoned for his faith in Jesus, and the accusers who took off their coats to limber up for […]
by David Anderson 2 Comments Filed Under: Change, Character, Conversion, Epiphany, Faith/Trust, Forgiveness, Freedom, Grace, Gratitude, Identity, Lent, Mercy, Repentance, Surrender, Transformation, Uncategorized
lives in a meritocracy. He’s in debt to the tune of ten thousand talents, an astronomical sum that would take the average worker of that era 150,000 years to repay. Following the custom of the day, the king decides to sell him into slavery, along with his whole family, to try to recoup at least […]
by David Anderson Leave a Comment Filed Under: Conversion, Forgiveness, Gratitude, Lent, Mercy, Repentance, 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
discovered that no one could steal his essential blessing. It’s been twenty years since Jacob tricked his near-blind old father Isaac into giving him the blessing to which the firstborn Esau was entitled. He stole it, the little momma’s boy, and ran away to escape the wrath of his swarthy hunter brother who could have […]
by David Anderson 4 Comments Filed Under: Abundance, Anger, Conflict, Family, Forgiveness, Gratitude, Lent, Mercy, Uncategorized