Preacher, Husband, Father, walking by God's grace through faith that saved me.
Recently, I discovered the works of the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks whose writing has been a blessing to me. This is especially true of his book, “Judaism’s Life-Changing Ideas: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible.“ His reflections on Metzora were so timely for me and I believe important for everyone after a year like … More A Positive Word
The reports coming in about the current mental health of people during this time of uncertainty and isolation is not good. We are under a real threat to our wholistic well-being and we are threatened by the virus. Here is what I hear and see. We are hurting…suffering in private, but also very visible ways. … More A Powerful Word
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Matthew 5 I wrestle with this teaching. Not that I don’t agree with it or aspire to live it. I wrestle with the weight of what Jesus says in this teaching. He is making the case that one can only truly understand and embrace the mercy … More In Need of Mercy
All I hear about lately is that people are stretched to their breaking point. Even though we know that we are worn thin we still press on with all the practices that we liked to do to relax in the years before COVID. The problem with this is that so many of us don’t ever … More We Must REST
I appreciate that social media has provided me the opportunity to connect and reconnect with family, friends, and colleagues all over the world. At the same time I learned from this past year something about myself that I needed to own. I didn’t find anything good about having a Twitter account. Many people do or … More Throw Back Twitter #TBThursday
“When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and he taught them, saying: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The Gospel according to Matthew 5:1-3 I can’t escape that the first … More Living the Blessings: Jesus message on The Beatitudes
There is no doubt in anyone’s mind at this point that we are in the midst of a truly unusual year. The problems that we see all around us come at us with a heightened urgency that can easily drown the most optimistic among us. Virus, job loss, injustice, broken systems, riots, houses up for … More Doing Heart Work
Today, is day two of our schools being closed across the nation. We are out of school, because it is our normal Spring Break. That said the kids feel ripped off somewhat and we are all feeling a little trapped due to so many things being closed until further notice. Personally, I like it when … More Prayer in a time of Virus
we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. (Galatians 2:16) Is this the point to this life summed by obeying a set of rules from a divine power or is it about understanding that God loves us? This is struggle happens in every … More A Disciple’s Life
It is that time of year again when we in the Christian faith will give something up for God as we prepare for Easter. Moderation and fasting are valuable practices that have longterm benefits, but does God really care about whether we have chocolate between now and Easter? In short. No. The prophet Hosea wrote; … More Something Else
Rev. Shawn J. Smith 