Author Archives: maggiemax15

Traditional lore has it that in every generation, a person is born with the potential to be the Messiah. If the time is right for the messianic age within that person’s lifetime, then that person will be the Messiah. … members of the counsel are reported to have asked “What should we do?” Given our present prosperity, our freedom to practice our religion and control our civil life, maybe we should wait for a Messiah in a coming generation? Continue reading →

What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation. Continue reading →

What does denial of Jesus, or betrayal for that matter, look like today? Judgment can become complex. For instance we have Judas Son of Simon Iscariot or Simon Peter to contrast – one, tradition has it, hung himself and the other is made head of the Church. Close call. Continue reading →

John 13:34-35 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for … Continue reading →

Lazarus was now alive but he was still bound, hands and feet, in the shrouds of death in which those who loved him most had wrapped him. “Unbind him, and let him go!” Jesus commands.
Does that continue to be our challenge, to finish the work of releasing from the constraints of the trappings of death those who Christ as brought back to life? Continue reading →

“Rabbi”, they ask, “who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” The students view that those with physical disabilities were being punished either for their own sin or the sin of their parents was a common understanding for their time. It was a fair academic question. Today most introductory classes in the sciences are quick to point out that, “correlation does not necessitate causation.” And perhaps the man’s parents were not the most exemplary human beings, we don’t know, but just because a man is born blind and his parents are sinners doesn’t mean that there is a direct cause and effect relationship between the two events. Continue reading →

If there is not joy flowing out of our lives and within the community of faith then there is a need for renewal and a new infusion of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps a genuine Pentecost for some would be an outpouring of the Joy of the Spirit of God in the midst of the people of God. Continue reading →

Coming to Jesus for the goodies, like the crowd, or trying to understand Jesus out of one’s religious tradition, or even following Jesus because he seems to have the best way to live life might all be first steps but unless the Spirit of God draws us we will find reasons for refusing the life giving invitation to life as intended for us by God. Continue reading →

Kitty Bendixen-park Worship Leader 2/9/2014 Friends, have you ever been flat out on your back, sick, and uncertain, paralyzed in fear, resigned in your depression? And who carried you then? Who picked you up in love and faith and ushered … Continue reading →

God wants a church which lives out the extraordinary integrity, temperament, wholeness, compassion, individuality, boldness, righteousness, earnestness, love, forgiveness, selflessness, and self giving faithfulness of Jesus Christ! Continue reading →