520 results for tag: blog
It’s All on Rails – by Ed Dunn
The beginning of 2025 is a big deal as it relates to my commute to and from work each business day. Early 2025 is the date set for a brand-new train station to open close to my home. This means that no longer will I need half-an-hour to get from my front door to the station stop I use. Rather, all I’ll need is ten minutes, with a convenient Starbuck’s Coffee positioned smartly along the way. I’ll board the train with a hot cup of coffee in hand, and ride the rails to work a bit more quicky than I do now.
It’s all on rails for me, which is to say, it’s all quite easy. In an urban sprawl the size of Los Angeles County, to leave the ...
Hooked on a Feeling – by Greg Albrecht
Once upon a time, the word "addiction" was used almost exclusively to define and describe dependence on mood altering substances. Addiction is centered on sensory stimulation and gratification. When a particular chemical substance that produces an incredible "rush" or "high" wears off, an individual starts returning to the drug to experience the same feeling again. Substance addiction is further understood as continued involvement with a drug because of immediate pleasure and gratification, in spite of the negative consequences the addict would eventually experience.
Today we speak not only of substance addiction but also, in a broader context, ...
Clothed in Christ – by Greg Albrecht
Friend and Partner Letter for February 2025:
One hears much discussion at this time of year about clothing styles and designers as the “stars” come out for award shows which their industry hosts to honor itself – the Academy Awards being the most lavish and spectacular of them all. Much of the focus is on what the “beautiful” people are wearing.
Clothing of course hides our nakedness and protects us from the elements. But spiritually speaking, clothing can be an attempt to hide who we really are while vainly endeavoring to present ourselves as being something we are not. Genesis says clothing served ...
When Christ-less Religion Meets God’s Grace – by Greg Albrecht
All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.—John 16:1-3
What happens when fear, shame and guilt meet God's unconditional love? Human history is a record of titanic struggles and classic confrontations. Biblically, we think of Moses and the seemingly defenseless Israelites, hemmed in by the mountains, with the Red Sea at their back, being pursued by the finest, most well-equipped and trained army in the world at that time. We ...
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
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