We all know the story of the boy who is harshly reprimanded to sit down and then sits down with the announcement: I’m sitting now but inside I am standing. This is a classic example of resistance with a good shot of rebellion mixed in. These sound like serious emotions for now and then with…
Tag: peace
331. An Open Letter
We are used to letters in the Bible. Most of the New Testament is written in the genre of letters. Everyone from an older generation had to practise how to write a letter – I don’t know whether the art of letter-writing is still taught. We can easily recognize the letters of the Bible by…
330. Out of the chaos
While we’re all battling with an excess of information, it’s just amazing what’s available at our fingertips and how much one can learn, effortlessly, with the necessary discernment and a little time and focus. I learn daily. Whether it’s new technology or advice that helps to live fitter and healthier, the revival of old “home…
326. The whisper in the calm of the wind
It seems to me these days that everything has to happen in the headlines. World events are every human being’s subject for debate, anger, and insult. It’s a trap of entanglement and even obsession. There is also a tendency to read world events into the Bible and especially to interpret everything about Israel as signs of the…
253. Christmas-multiplication
December has come and we are well into celebrating the four words of Advent. Four Sundays before Christmas we hear the message again and again – rightly so. We need it. We need to be washed in the water of the Word to be cleansed and ready for the Feast. We give the content to our Christmas celebrations; we make contact with others…
121. King of peace.
[John 12] Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem. To come to Jerusalem during the time of the Passover took great courage. Jesus knew He was already in big “trouble” with the authorities. Lodgings must have been a problem inside Jerusalem. Bethany was one of the places outside the city to stay when the visiting…
85. Word, Light, World, Darkness.
We have said it already. It is written in the volumes of history. His words stand firm and unchallenged. Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (John 8:12) Many people have come and gone, claiming to be God, to be the Messiah, to…
72. Words of blood for my future.
Oh, the uncertainty, the dread, the misty outlook, the hesitant gaze upon a path covered in the fog of the time span called the future. To us it is not revealed; to God it is known. Like death, the future is a mystery belonging to God. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to…
Pebbles of Perpetuity 