Christine's Blog (2,525)

It is hard to believe it was eight months ago when we first cracked open Paul’s letter to the church at Rome.  And now we find ourselves with eight chapters under our belt.  (New readers join us all the time, so for those who would like to go back and reread earlier Romans briefings, go to www.pastorwoman.com, and click on Bible teaching, Morning Briefings, and scroll down to Romans.  All 66 studies from Romans are…

Good Morning, my friends-

You are the Beloved. You are much loved by God.

And, as we read yesterday in “Love and the year 1970,” NOTHING can separate us from God’s love.

Being the Beloved expresses the core truth of our existence. 

I am putting this so directly and so simply because, though the experience of being the Beloved has never been completely absent from my life, I never claimed it as my core truth.  I kept running around it in large or small circles,…

Chosen—it means God is FOR US.  Romans 8.31-34

I was speaking on the subject of friendship.  Specifically, I was trying to give a definition for a true friend.   A true friend is someone who says to the object of her affection, ‘I am FOR YOU’.  It means:  I will cheer you on ... I will believe the best in you …  I will release you of my expectations of you … I will hold you close to my heart, but not demand you be close at my side … I will endeavor to ‘hear’ you when you have…

“HOSANNA in the Highest!"

I was sitting in my home office, with my Bible open, and thinking of just how good and gracious God is to us.  I cannot revisit the life (and death) of Jesus Christ without thinking of his great love for us.  A line from a melodious worship song ran through my mind, ‘hosanna, hosanna . . .’ and I thought of the townspeople waving their palm branches and saying ‘hosanna’ to Jesus.  But I couldn’t think of the origination of the word, so I looked it…

Prayer MATTERS.  

“Could I ask you an honest question?”  I asked, looking around at the faces of my Women of Passion last week.  Responding to their nods, I said, “Why is it so difficult to pray aloud?” Mini conversations broke out on both sides of our long luncheon tables …  It seems that people are just afraid they won’t ‘get it right’.  Their prayer won’t sound right—well, at least not as good, or as right as another’s!  ‘She practically sounds like a minister when…

A song . . . a 1966 movie.  And sometimes in my mind when I step back from something, ‘try to see the bigger picture, it is those words than run through my mind—‘what’s it all about, Alfie?’  Funny thing is—looking up the lyrics today, I see that they really are quite meaningful; we’ll get back to that . . . in the meantime, where have we just been? 

We looked at Jesus’ final night with his disciples-

How he pleaded with the Father to change what would be his…

GOT HIM.  9/11—do you remember?

Yes, I read when I am on the cardio machines at the gym . . . and in addition to studying Scripture and various commentaries, I read books on the power of prayer, and other inspirational Christian writings.  Interestingly enough, on the morning after Osama bin Laden’s demise, this was where I found myself today:  “I was an office worker assigned to the Tunnels, Bridges, and Terminals Department of the Port Authority of New York.  On the morning…

Would you know it was Jesus?

Who else saw Jesus see after he had shed his burial clothes?

Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaeus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. (Luke 24) They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them, but they were kept from recognizing him. This I do not understand--somehow, his…

The Epicenter of Christianity.  Today's Scripture from Luke 24 and John 20

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was…

Christ is risen . . . He has risen indeed!   Did you say that at church yesterday?  This year, my Easter celebration was uniquely punctuated by sunset at the beach.  I’ll get back to that, but for now, how blessed are we to go to church two thousand years after the resurrection and celebrate what took place on that Sunday so long ago?!

Remember?  “On the first day of the week, at early dawn, they [the women] went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the…

Crucified, buried . . . Finally, the procession reaches the top of Mount Calvary--Jesus and two criminals are to be crucified.  Jesus is stripped naked, his bruised and bloodied arms outstretched on the rough wood--a five-inch long, three-eighths-inch square nail is driven through each of his hands--actually, more the wrists. Crucifixion is meant to be humiliating beyond compare, excruciating without any other equal, as each painful hour drags by before death by suffocation eventually…

A FRIEND LIGHTENS THE LOAD.  And as they led Him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country and laid on him the cross to carry it behind Jesus. And there followed Him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for Him. Luke 23.26 and following. . .

Good Morning, Friends.

We follow Jesus on the road to the crucifixion . . . I was trying to devise something encouraging out of this very heavy passage, realizing how…

The biblical accounts from Luke 23 and Matthew 27:

JESUS BEFORE HEROD ANTIPAS. When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had wanted to see him; in fact, he was hoping to see him perform some sort of miracle. He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave no answer. The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him. Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing our Lord in an elegant robe, they…

We left Jesus standing before the Sanhedrin, with Caiaphas saying, 'we don't need any more witnesses--we heard all we need to hear,' planning to send Jesus to Pilate, governor of Judah~

There is no doubt that this was the most famous and the most important trial in all of history, so let’s take a look at the accounts from all four gospels, as Jesus begins his civil trial.

They bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor. By now it was early morning,…

Jesus finishes his time of agonizing prayer, and returns to his men, barely in time for his friend, Judas, to step forward and kiss him . . . ensuring those who had come to arrest him, that he was indeed The Man.  Luke continues with the events of that night:

The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking him and beating him. They blindfolded him and demanded, "Prophesy! Who hit you?" And they said many other insulting things to him. At daybreak the council of the elders of the people,…

And so Jesus departs from the Upper Room . . . and begins the quiet march toward his arrest.  He returns again this night to the Mount of Olives, and stops in the garden that we hold so dear, the Garden of Gethsemane, where he prayed to his Father, about the agony that was soon to come upon him. . .  Luke 22.39-46 -  www.biblegateway.com

Good Morning~ 

Let's think for a moment about what it must have been…

Irony that hurts

Isn't it ironic. . .

An old man turned ninety-eight

He won the lottery and died the next day

It's a black fly in your Chardonnay

It's a death row pardon two minutes too late

And isn't it ironic?

It's like rain on your wedding day

It's a free ride when you've already paid

It's the good advice that you just didn't take

Who would've thought... that this tune would have run through my head as I…

Good Morning~

At sundown of that same day, thirteen men met to celebrate the Passover in a great gray hall, an upper room in a house on Mount Zion, the northeast corner of the height of Jerusalem. In the tall-roofed chamber with heavy beams holding up the ceiling, the only furnishings were rattan divans and a long oaken table, on which tall candles were burning. The flickering flames played upon the sturdy figures of the Apostles, and repeated them in distorted shadows against the…