89 results for tag: Letters to My Friends

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

Resting in Christ Jesus – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from October 2024: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest – Matthew 11: 28   These monthly letters are normally a way of providing some Christ-centered nourishment, one of the most important parts of our ministry. When we pray about, ponder and prepare these letters (primarily Ed Dunn and myself as writers, but the team who ensures these letters arrive in the mail and are posted digitally includes all editors and proofreaders) we take each letter seriously, often spending many hours before completing one. We don’t just dash these letters out, but we carefully and ...

Why Suffering? – by Greg Albrecht

During Jesus’ earthly ministry, religion generally believed those who suffered and experienced catastrophic accidents and calamities were being punished for their sin. But the gospel of Jesus Christ insists that disease, disasters and distress (or lack thereof) are NOT indications of a person’s inferior or superior spiritual standing with God.  The Gospel of Luke (Luke 13:1-8) tells us of some Galilean Jews who had recently come to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to God at the temple. Pilate, the procurator of the province of Judea, the same Pilate who tortured and crucified Jesus, barbarically killed these Jewish pilgrims and mixed ...

Our Eternal House – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from September 2024: For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile, we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling… and we would prefer to be away from the body and present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:1-2, 8). When I turned 50, along with nearly everyone else my age in these United States, I started receiving literature from the AARP (American Association for Retired Persons). I was surprised – to be honest, I was offended. What? My 50th birthday meant I needed help crossing the ...

Finding Jesus or Being Found – by Greg Albrecht

But now that you know God – or rather are known by God… Galatians 4:9 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. – John 1:11 When we read John’s summary statement about Jesus being rejected by “his own” we normally think of the historic Jewish culture, race and religion into which Jesus was born… something that happened a long time ago, in the “olden” days. But consider this: If Jesus arrived on earth today, many people who sincerely believe they are following him wouldn’t even let him in their church buildings.  I have a friend who is a Hindu, who in the spirit of our lighthearted ...

Walls and Bridges – by Greg Albrecht

Think with me for a moment about the contrast between a wall and a bridge. Walls exclude and reject while bridges invite and include. Walls are built to limit access – to prohibit adversaries or threats from what is deemed to be worthy of protecting and securing.  Bridges are constructed because of a need and/or a desire to increase traffic from one side to another – bridges are built because of inhospitable, formidable obstacles, a valley or a body of water that inhibits or prevents safe crossings.  Both walls and bridges have their role in our world, but a bridge is by far and away a better illustration of the relationship ...

Spiritual Assisted Living – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from July 2024: Many of you are well aware, perhaps painfully and heartbreakingly so, that in our North American culture “assisted living” describes the extra services needed by seniors living in  communal homes who need more “assistance” with daily tasks than other residents.  Now that I am closer to 80 than I am to 70 (that’s as much as I will divulge in this letter!) I don’t need to be convinced that aging happens and when it does, capabilities, abilities and agilities start to diminish.    Perhaps we don’t fully realize what it means to get old(er) until we pass 60 or 70, or ...

The Grace of God Is Immoral? – by Greg Albrecht

A familiar captivity is frequently more desirable than an unfamiliar freedom. – C.S. Lewis When many who are comfortable with their cherished religious practices and ceremonies hear about CWR (Christianity WITHOUT the religion) and how we as a ministry champion “religion-less” Christianity, they often accuse Christianity WITHOUT the religion and “religion-less” Christianity as being nothing less than permissiveness and immorality.  It’s a serious accusation – one the organized religion of Jesus’ day used to condemn him. As you know, the religious leadership of Jesus’ day insisted that Jesus was spending too much time ...

God Is Making All Things New – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from June 2024: He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch and old one.  Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old.  And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins” (Luke 5:36-38) Wine “bottles” in Palestine in the day of Jesus were made of skin, usually that of a goat or sheep.   After new wine was poured into a wineskin, as it fermented, it gradually ...

Forgiving Obnoxious Stinkers – by Greg Albrecht

  Old dogs care about you even when you make mistakes. God bless little children while they’re still too young to hate. – Tom T. Hall, Old Dogs, Little Children and Watermelon Wine  His mother told the little four-year old boy he should learn to forgive those who trespassed against him. Her son had never heard the King James word “trespass” – but he realized trespass must be something someone did/does that is really bad. He “translated” the word “trespass” into one of the worst things he had been taught not to do. A few days later, when he was having dinner with his parents, his mother asked him what he had learned ...

God or the gods…In Whom Do We Believe? – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from May 2024: The god of this age has blinded the mind of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4). Caught in traffic after leaving his office, Dave arrived at his son’s first Little League game a little late. His son’s team was just leaving the field after finally getting the other team out. Dave could tell his wife sitting in the grandstands was not happy with his late arrival, so hoping to make some amends he walked down by his son’s dugout and called him over. “What’s the score, Johnny?” His ...

Believing is Seeing – by Greg Albrecht

Doubting Thomas said he would not believe Jesus had actually been resurrected unless he could see and touch Jesus and thereby “prove” the resurrection. Thomas had to see in order to believe. Jesus, in one of his post-resurrection appearances to his friends, accommodated Thomas, telling him,  “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God.” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” – John 20:27-29 Living in this scientific and ...

Lived Briefly, Died Violently, Rose Unexpectedly – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from April 2024: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 4:18). The Romans had many ways they executed criminals, from decapitation to being eaten by animals in the arena before bloodthirsty mobs – but crucifixion was the worst of the worst.  Crucifixion was the most humiliating method of warning everyone against “crossing” the power and might of Rome – the public, graphic, fear-inducing depiction of the absurd futility, from Rome’s perspective, of opposing its might and supremacy. The cross ...

Doubt, Faith and Hope – by Greg Albrecht

According to an old story, years ago there was a severe drought in the farm country of Texas. The people were in despair, so they asked the pastor of their little church to pray for rain. The pastor decided to have a town-wide meeting and invite everyone – even people who were not members of his church – to come and pray for rain.  On the day of the prayer service the little church building was packed to the rafters with desperate people. The pastor climbed into the pulpit and looked out on the assembly.  He asked, “Why are we all here today?” A woman cried out, “We’ve come to pray for rain.” Another person said, ...

Coming Home – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from March 2024: No doubt you have heard someone say, as they prepare to tell a story which others might have been heard or read before, “stop me if you have heard this before.” You are well aware of this story I want to rehearse, so don’t stop me please! This is one of the best stories ever!  Let’s enjoy this brief re-telling again, together!! Once there was a father with two sons. He loved them both, with all his heart. The youngest of the two sons was a “free spirit.”  He was a party waiting to happen, the life of every gathering, a handsome playboy who felt his father owed him a living.&...

A Road Paved With Good Intentions – by Greg Albrecht

Those who attempt to please and appease God via their own accomplishments, good deeds and virtues find that it’s a long and bitterly disappointing never-ending road. People who struggle down the broad road (Matthew 7:13) of Christ-less religion are dragging a ball and chain, because their best efforts to convince God to love them will never be enough.  I lived on that road for almost 40 years – I often call it “40 Miles of Bad Road” after an old Duane Eddy song (released in 1959, but who’s counting?!?). I discovered that the road to hell can be paved with the best of intentions.  Those who trudge down the road of ...

The Tyranny of Numbers – by Greg Albrecht

Perhaps as never before seen in the history of planet earth, we in our advanced, so-called “first world” of 2024 are a culture that worships at the altar of numbers and measurements. If something or someone can be studied, measured, analyzed, weighed and tested then the presupposition is that scientific analysis can improve something or someone. One of the central beliefs of our Western world is that improvement, advancement, gain, and development can be achieved by improving numbers and data that measure progress and growth. This, I believe, is part of the tyranny of numbers! In our society and culture productivity, higher yields, longer ...