506 results for tag: blog

Great Gifts in Small Packages – by Laura Urista

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). Two Christmases ago, after exchanging all the other presents, our daughter gave my husband Juan and me a small beautifully wrapped package. She had saved it and asked us to open it last. At first, we were a little confused, because the contents looked like a positive Covid test, but I suddenly realized it was a positive pregnancy test. The tears started flowing as I understood that we were going to have a new addition to the family! What joy the news of a precious new life brings to any family. ...

God Comes Near – by Greg Albrecht

Imagine, for a moment, that you are part of a team building a skyscraper. Your team building this "high rise" would need, of course, a great deal of expertise to ensure that a sound foundation would be laid. Considerable expense and work is involved in preparing the foundation of any edifice that eventually soars majestically, hundreds of feet into the air. Skyscrapers are incredibly heavy, so they must be built on much more durable foundations than smaller buildings. In virtually every case, a skyscraper requires a deep foundation, with pilings, drilled shafts and columns put in place using a pile driver—all reinforced by concrete. When God ...

He’s Only Just Begun – by Greg Albrecht

Christmas is the hinge and fulcrum of all history. Points in time before the first Christmas are B.C. or B.C.E. (before the Christian era) and events after that first Christmas are A.D. (anno Domini – year of our Lord). The birth of the Christ child, God in the flesh, is a new beginning…his new beginning and our new beginning. But make no mistake, Christmas was not the end of God’s revelation to humanity, it was only the beginning.   God has gradually revealed himself and the abundance of the gospel over time with greater clarity and fullness. In the beginning, Genesis speaks of God as “we” by saying let us make mankind in our ...

Despised and Rejected of Men – by Greg Albrecht

Isaiah says that Jesus was despised. Jesus wasn't merely ignored or disliked. Jesus wasn't regarded as just a minor irritant—he was hated and despised—strong language—powerful emotions! When someone is despised they are regarded with contempt and scorn, they are loathed, and regarded as unworthy of interest or concern. When someone is rejected, others refuse to accept or recognize them. They are effectively discarded as useless. Why was Jesus despised? The answer lies in the determination as to who, specifically, despised him? What specific segment of his culture absolutely despised and rejected him? • Did his fellow carpenters go ballis...

Do Not Be Afraid – by Greg Albrecht

The time and culture of Jesus' birth was not unlike the world in which we live today. For that matter, it was just like any generation or era in history. The specific people, land and culture to which Jesus came was a world permeated with fear at almost every level. The Jews were an occupied people. They suffered under grinding poverty and heavy taxation. There was a huge gap between the rich and the poor. Life expectancy, particularly among the poor, is estimated to have been in the mid-30s to early-40s. Fear is a part of what it means to be human. It's a common and normal emotional reaction. • We have fears that we will live so long that our ...

The Season of Lights – by Ed Dunn

I remember Christmastime as a child. I remember riding together with my brothers and sisters in the backseat of our old family station-wagon. As the days were short on sunlight during the wintery months in our particular part of Western Pennsylvania, many of our rides together took place after dark. We thought of ourselves as “country bumpkins” who grew up “in the sticks,” and as such, we knew if we could catch a glimpse of the Christmas lights from “town” on one of our rides, it would make for a real seasonal treat.    As children, we were quite lucky. Our family station-wagon was the only one of its kind, ...

It All Comes From God – by Greg Albrecht

Here in the United States this is the time after Thanksgiving. It's a time of the year when it can be so easy to forget that what we are eating and enjoying is what God has given us, for every good and perfect gift is from above…(James 1:17). Here in the U.S. we just experienced Black Friday—the day after Thanksgiving, a day when many people are off work and flood the shopping malls, trying to get a head start on Christmas shopping. Another year of Christmas hype is in full swing. It's a time when Christmas decorations, advertisements, and promotions urge us to buy and spend, and during such a time it's so easy to forget that anything and ...

CWR Video – Our Incarnated Lives – by Steve McVey

https://player.vimeo.com/video/115914372

One Week in December – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from December 2024: On Monday, a couple signed divorce papers. The end of 32 years together – now a fractured family, with three children, in-laws and many friends. What will happen now? Does this divorce matter to God? So this is Christmas? On Tuesday, a husband and father left work, got on a bus to go home to his family. Two young people appeared, demanding his money, cell phone and wedding ring. He resisted, was beaten and stabbed and left to die as the teens left the bus. Where was God? On Wednesday, a 60-year-old woman visited her doctor to receive news of her recent tests. She was not shocked to hear her ...

The Peace of Thanksgiving – by Ed Dunn

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful – Colossians 3:15 Thanksgiving just gets me all warm and tingly and all kinds of wonderful inside - Willard Scott There is something magical about a Thanksgiving Day morning. Maybe it’s the fact that Thanksgiving Day is a guaranteed holiday (and the next day too) for most people from the rigors and routine of normal workplace demands. Maybe it’s the sense that if you wake up early enough, life as we experience it in the day-to-day seems to quiet for a while. Maybe it’s the crispness of the autumn air outside, cup of ...

Generosity Without Expectations – Greg Albrecht

A youth group from a prosperous North American suburb volunteered to help a pastor serve meals in an inner-city soup kitchen. Before this experience, most of these young people had only seen homeless people through their car windows as they and their family happened to drive through a poor part of town. It was just before Thanksgiving, and the young people served a hot meal of beans, turkey, mashed potatoes and yams to a long line of people. As they filed past these young people filling empty plates with generous servings, few of the homeless people made any eye contact with the young people who were serving the free meal, and only a few ...

Meals on Wheels – by Greg Albrecht

Earlier this year my wife and I attended memorial services for the wife of an older gentleman who frequents the same gym where my wife and I exercise. Jerrat is one of a number of seniors who arrive early at the gym, virtually every day. We have joined this group about three times a week over the last 6-8 years. A group of about 20 of us from the gym (we call ourselves gym rats) joined Jerrat, his family, loved ones and friends, supporting them during this time of loss. A week or so after the funeral my wife Karen decided to make some dinner for Jerrat. We called him and asked him if we could come to his house and bring him dinner. He was so ...

God’s Love and Grace Lifts Us Up – by Greg Albrecht

Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing… and doing things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry…The story of civilization is the story of what happened on the banks. Historians are pessimists because they ignore the banks for the river.         – Will and Ariel Durant   We cannot ignore the warfare, bloodshed, brutality, oppression, poverty and disease that are a part of the river of history, a noxious, defiled sewer that contin...

An Offer We Can’t Refuse – by Greg Albrecht

Luke 14:15-24 There are more than 38,000 Christian denominations around this world. Over 3.5 million congregations that identify themselves as Christian churches formally gather together, on a regular basis, around this world. But did you know, in spite of what I've just said, that there is only one Christian church in Germany? Only one in Italy? Only one in India? Only one in China? And only one in the United States and Canada. I'm speaking, of course, about the church of Jesus Christ —not about a humanly incorporated corporation or institution—but about the one church of the body of Christ. Our passage speaks of a great banquet. Here is a ...

Liminal Spaces – by Bermie Dizon

My wife and I have a friend who is moving out of their home and relocating to another state. Our friend shared how challenging this process has been, and I can completely relate. Most of us have faced the stress of moving, and dealing with unexpected challenges that feel like curve-balls. Recently, I came across a word that perfectly captures this experience—liminal. Having come from the Philippines and learning English in school, liminal is a new word for me. Liminal spaces refer to those in-between moments—the threshold between where we've been and where we're going. It's that time when one door has closed, but the next one hasn't yet ...

Rest for the Weary – by Greg Albrecht

I heard a story about an American missionary named David who served in an African town several decades ago. David was amazed to see the heavy loads and burdens the Africans carried on their heads as a part of their regular jobs. The most astonishing individual he met, in this regard, was a lady who had perfected the technique of carrying heavy loads on her head to such a degree that her peers called her "the human delivery truck." Amazing at it seems to us, she delivered engine blocks from cars and trucks from one repair shop to another. According to the story, four men would lift the engine block on to a tray that she carried on her head—she ...

Empty Your Pockets – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter for November 2024: Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) was a beloved American writer. Her humor, in newspaper columns and 15 books, was flavored with inspiration and wisdom. She concluded a newspaper column published on March 10, 1987 with these insights (my emphasis in bold): “I always had a dream that when I am asked to give an accounting of my life to a higher court, it will go like this: ‘So, empty your pockets. What have you got left of your life? Any dreams that were unfulfilled? Any unused talent that we gave you when you were born that you still have left? Any unsaid compliments or bits of love that you haven’t ...

Are You a Believer? – by Greg Albrecht

Many Christians use the word believer as a short definition of their way of life and as a way of separating their practices and teachings from non-believers. Without further qualification, the term believer can be just one more in a long list of clichés and "in-house" terminology. After all, a believer might describe someone who believes in UFOs and aliens from outer space. A believer might describe someone who actually believes in the ghosts and goblins of Halloween. So the term believer begs for further definition, doesn't it? Belief in what or who? The answer may seem to be obvious, but sadly, in many cases it isn't. Ponder with me two ...

Loving Legalism – No Such Thing! – by Greg Albrecht

From the time the first human beings walked the face of the earth, literally billions of people have been living lives of religious legalism—attempting to do for themselves what God has already done for them—trying to replace God's infinitely powerful grace with empty, useless human effort. After Jesus came to us, telling us about and showing us God's unconditional love, and after establishing his church, it seems we should have gotten the point. But even though Jesus, God in the flesh, came as one of us revealing the Father, religious legalism continues even among people who claim to be Christians. In fact legalism, as a counte...

Unity, Liberty and Charity – by Greg Albrecht

IT’S FAR FROM BREAKING NEWS! Our world is hopelessly divided, embroiled in continuing controversy. With soul-depressing regularity it seems entire news networks and organizations here in the United States spew out one and only one polarizing political perspective, demonizing all who disagree. Then there is the religious world, where “devout” people whose holy books tell them to love their neighbors are instead terrorizing and persecuting and even killing those who disagree. Politics divides us and Christ-less religion separates us.  You may remember the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) – what began as a war between Catholics and ...