(This post was originally published on the Baptist Convention of New England’s blog on October 16, 2019. You can find it here.)
Women have longed for romance since the beginning of time. (Small wonder: the first words spoken to us from human lips were lyrics of a love song.) Something deep in us thrills at the chase, whether it’s being pursued or being the pursuer.
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As a kid, I loved Mowgli’s adventures with the monkeys of Angkor Wat. Those ruins seemed so exotic, almost magical. Now I consider the piles of Cambodian rubble beautifully tragic: a previously thriving place of worship has crumbled, and all that’s left is an impressive shadow of its former glory. Sure, it draws tourists, but its original purpose is no longer being fulfilled. John 2 takes us from Cana to Jerusalem. While the wedding shows off the abundant exuberance ushered in with Christ’s new messianic age, the temple reveals that His people are being crippled by a religious system that spiritually resembles Mowgli’s decaying playground.
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If it’s been a while since you immersed yourself in the story of Esther, I guarantee it will be a half-hour well spent. With equal parts romance and bloodshed, the tagline could easily read, “All’s fair in love and war.” Oddly enough, you never see God’s name even once, but He’s there working behind the scenes of this epic chapter in the Big Story. Want a teaser of the main characters?
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Winter pulls me inward, spring calls me forth, and summer sets me loose, but fall—it invigorates me down to my toes. There’s nothing like the energy that accompanies orchards and county fairs; you can almost taste it. Football games send cadences up into the air until even the staunchest introvert is dizzy with excitement. Leaves come crashing to the earth in a mad rush while mugs fill with steaming cider and plastic buckets fill with candy. Foggy mornings give way to crisp, clear afternoons scented with anticipation. Oh, friends! The God who thought all this up must be a very good God indeed.
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(This post was originally published on the Baptist Convention of New England’s blog on September 28, 2019. You can find it here.)
Has God ever ambushed you?
I recently attended a conference session about the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11). The speaker did a wonderful job of applying this timeless story by discussing the rocks we all carry around in our pockets, just waiting for the opportune time to lob them at “that one person.” And we each knew who “that one person” was for us.
Except I didn’t.
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