Dear Theophilus

the text: John 1:29-42  The next day he [John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming towards him and declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, “After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.’ And John testified, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.’ The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, ‘Look, here is the Lamb of God!’ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to t...

We just passed the halfway point in Lent (March 15)! And if you are like me, you have failed at your lenten practices many times over. " God is light and in God there is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5) / "God is love" (1 John 4:8)   It is at this point that I have to remind myself of a few things: (1) I do not practice and observe Lent to make God love me more and (2) I am a broken person who can't even live up to my own standards and practices let alone that of a infinitely holy God. God is light. To walk in light is to have all brokenness and rebelliousness exposed. The darkness of my soul cannot exist in the light. Dark cannot exist in light. I have two choices, to find a way to get rid of the darkness or hide from the light. Everyone has darkness and brokenness. Sometimes I want to downplay it. Sometimes I want to ignore it. Yet Lent is the perfect time, not only to work at exposing light into the dark corners, but coming to grips with our own brokenne...