510 results for tag: blog
Looking Ahead or Looking Back – by Greg Albrecht
As the covered wagon rolled and pitched
Along the prairie track, One sat looking forward
And one sat looking back. One searched the wide horizon For a bright and better day:
And, one saw the disappointing road
Til’ it too slipped away. ...
Grace – Up on the Roof – by Greg Albrecht
The second chapter of Joshua tells us that a woman named Rahab found grace in the most unexpected manner and place. This story would make a great Hollywood action-thriller. It's a story that includes adventure, suspense, military conflict, spies—and, of course, a beautiful woman. It has all the elements of a block-buster hit at the box office.
The leading character of this drama is a prostitute named Rahab. We can be fairly certain that Rahab was not invited to join the important clubs in Jericho where she lived, because she lived and worked on the fringes of polite society. While Rahab's way of earning a living may have been more acceptable in ...
The God of Comfort – by Greg Albrecht
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together with all his holy people throughout Achaia: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are ...
Get Comfortable with the Questions – by Ed Dunn
Once a year, usually around a long weekend, we’d all pile into our old family station-wagon and head out from our home in western Pennsylvania for the woods of central Connecticut. We were off and traveling to see our Grammy and Grampy Reeves, grandparents on my mother’s side of the family. It was hard to contain the excitement of five eager children. Our visits were a cherished treat, and both the trip and the time together were treasures we truly looked forward to.
Grammy and Grampy Reeves split most years living in two places; the school years in New York City and the summers in upstate Connecticut. As the lead chaplain at New York’s ...
CWR Video – The Plan and Will of God
In this CWR Video, Greg and Ed discuss ways to talk about the Plan and Will of God.
https://vimeo.com/1011063662
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Turning the Corner on 2024 – by Greg Albrecht
Friend and Partner Letter from January 2025:
We made it! We made it through another madcap, tumultuous, challenging and wild roller coaster ride of a year. We made it through 2024! Or, more correctly, by God’s grace we made it. We made it because our Risen Lord empowered and enabled us, living his life in us.
There is great news as we begin this New Year of 2025! God is still in love with you. He cannot love you any more than he already has, because he has loved you, still does and always will… to the MAX! God is absolutely head-over-heels in love with you.
He’s got your picture on his refrigerator and he has your name, ...
I Am Alive For Ever and Ever – by Greg Albrecht
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I Am Alive for Ever and Ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades."—Revelation 1:17-18
You know, almost every time that God came to someone in the Bible to tell them he wanted them to fulfill a certain responsibility, he received a similar response. Moses said he wasn't fit for the job because he had a speech impediment. Jonah of course ran away in the opposite direction. When Peter became more aware that Jesus was God in the flesh he told Jesus to get ...
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 ...
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