Category Archives: experience

Image

Sojourner

I took this picture yesterday as I walked across this bridge crossing the Danube river from Croatia to Serbia…

Peter talks about our being sojourners in this world. When I travel I am not a tourist, nor am I a “local.” I am not “just passin thru” with no cares or concerns. But I am also not tied to the places I go to and invest in. Indeed, if my heart is right there are things about each place, things that are compelling that are different than the others. Some places are more comfortable than others, some provoke more thought than others. I have to think about the way I relate to people culturally which is different, perhaps from the last place…

This is what Peter means in his first epistle about the way Christians ought to view this world. Being travelers who know and care but are not from there, we are from and belong to another place, yet as we visit, we care and we invest. How are you investing in the place you are visiting and the people therein?

Leave a comment

January 24, 2014 · 07:21

January 15, 2014 · 12:31

waitin on a bus

I’m online for a few moments thanks to the efforts of a kind man who also pointed me toward a chevapi dinner and even watched one of my bags while I walked to the center from the bus station. This man was on duty on the platform and was incredibly helpful. There are kind and helpful people in this fallen world.

Leave a comment

Filed under experience, photos along the way

January 12, 2014 · 18:10

Retreat

A baker’s dozen of us will go on a retreat tomorrow. It will be a time of rest and reflection.

Here’s our outline:

Don’t look back with regret,

Don’t sit now in fear,

Look forward with hope in God.

1 Comment

Filed under experience, seeking understanding, spiritual questions/musings/wonderings, travel notes

January 11, 2014 · 19:00

Teaching

Tomorrow I’m privileged to teach the Scripture on two ends of Budapest, the south (Del Pest) and the north (Békásmegyer).

I’m looking forward to looking at what the Bible tells us about the greatness and the model of Jesus. And the fact that without His power IN us, we cannot hope to be like Him. Is He IN you?

Leave a comment

Filed under experience, rest, spiritual questions/musings/wonderings, travel notes

December 28, 2013 · 13:40

Post-Christmas

Just got home from the Foley-Luper-Penno Christmas, this year at the Penno’s. As we were driving home from mid morning through pretty heavy traffic, I was thinking as I always do about the post Christmas feeling.

For me Advent is an awesome season because it is a time of anticipation of the holiday of Jesus incarnation. It is wonderful to think deeply about the Incarnation itself especially as we consider the helplessness of the baby Jesus. This was especially clear to me this year with a little William present. I was amazed as I was considering the helplessness of our 3 month old and realizing that God became a human, a baby… in a helpless condition.

Indeed this is what humility means, to lower oneself to serve another. In this case Jesus leaving heaven to come to earth to serve us through his birth death and resurrection.

To me the holiday seems to be over but the truth of Jesus’ work for us never ends.

I’m thinking about how we should truly celebrate Christmas by humbling ourselves and serving someone else.

Merry Christmas indeed.

Leave a comment

Filed under culture, definitions, experience, seeking understanding, spiritual questions/musings/wonderings

December 24, 2013 · 12:00

The Christmas Story: 2 lesson with a carol

Now that Lessons and Carols are over for this year, I’ve prepared a another kind of lesson with a carol.

Twenty years ago (back in ’93) a colleague came into faculty devotions (at RVCS) with a boom box and a Bible. He pushed play and began reading the Christmas Story. I immediately borrowed the tape (it was 20 years ago) and proceed to read the Christmas Story to the tunes of “Silent Night” by Mannheim Steamroller every class for the next two years. A tradition was born. In 1995 at Christmas I was in the ‘ville and for 14 years at Covenant I read the Christmas Story each year in what I called Christmas Chapel (the last chapel before Christmas). About 2008, I began reading this at Covenant’s Live Nativity. Every once and a while an alumnus tells me how much they enjoyed that tradition. Sweet Anna wants me to read it at Christmas. So, I decided to record it and post it in hopes that it would point someone to the real point of Christmas… the story of Jesus birth.

Here’s to, what I hope is, your enjoyment and encouragement to remember the Incarnation.