• God Ponderings

    He Walked Among Us

    Celebrating Advent Today is the fourth Sunday of Advent—a season that celebrates the arrival of Jesus Christ. It’s a time to pause, wrestle with the brokenness we experience, long for peace, and find hope in the God who came to save us. (This post was originally a letter from my Substack account.) This is my first year choosing to intentionally celebrate Advent as an adult and I’m loving it. The last Sunday of November I cut branches from various evergreens in my yard, fashioned a rough wreath shape, bought candles, and lit the first candle, the Candle of Hope, with my family. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Feeling the…

  • An Impostor Jesus,  And Then I Met Jesus,  Exposing Legalism,  God Ponderings,  Looking for the Real God,  My Story

    Defining Deconstruction

    There was an incredible Lego set but over the years people added pieces to it and took some away Most of them had good intentions They were trying to make it look better or more creative maybe more fun and even more defined But after a while you couldn’t tell what it used to look like It was just a pile of Lego blocks stuck together 🪴 I took the blocks apart and found the original instructions which were kind of crumpled and hard to read Then I separated the pieces choosing the ones that belonged to the oirginal set I did my best to follow the directions even though…

  • And Then I Met Jesus,  God Ponderings

    A Virus and a Savior

    Many of us used to think that the modern human being was advanced, intelligent, and sufficient. We had impressive technology, evolved thinking, and a vast array of resources. Any problem that anyone threw at us would be solvable. But a tiny little virus destroyed all of those beliefs in a matter of days. Rather than being sufficient, we have discovered that we are helpless with no cure or proven treatment. Instead of evolved intelligence, our smartest scientists struggle to explain the hows and whys. There are more questions than answers. Despite all of our technology and resources, we are left facing a very real fear of death. It is a…

  • God Ponderings,  Things We Don't Talk About

    The Only Condemnation was in the Commentary

    I’ve reached a pretty important conclusion. God isn’t who we think He is. I realize that the Old Testament God often has a bad reputation. It might be hard to hate Jesus, unless you’re an uber-religious leader, but Jehovah of the Old Testament does some pretty terrible things. He’s harsh and demanding. Or is He? I’ve been puttering around in the Old Testament during my morning devo time for the past four months or so. Basically ever since a well-known preacher told Christians to “unhitch” from it…I know, I’m a total rebel. 🙂 So far I’ve made it through Judges, Ruth, and First Samuel. I’m working my way through Second…

  • And Then I Met Jesus,  God Ponderings

    When Wrong is Right

    He pushed himself up against the spikes one last time, his body trembling from exhaustion and desperate pain, and drew in a ragged breath.  Collapsing once more, he spoke three last words. “It…is…finished…” His bloody head fell forward; his torn body sagged. Jesus of Nazareth was dead. Could there be anything more wrong? A truly good man, totally innocent and absolutely perfect, had been betrayed, falsely accused, denied a fair trial, tortured, and finally brutally executed. He hadn’t done anything to deserve it. But the religious leaders, motivated by things like jealously, fear, pride, and hatred had set him up. Pilate, not wanting to cause conflict with the Jews, agreed…