In the meantime

 "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish."  (Ephesians 5:25-27) Here in Ephesians 5:25-27, Paul paints details into how a husband is to love his wife by giving us the supreme example of Christ's glorious relationship with His Bride.  Paul exhorts husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church.  How did He love the Church? Christ loved the Church to the extent that He laid down His life for Her. In my mind's eye, these verses portray a groom waiting at the end of the aisle, anxiously anticipating his bride to appear in the doorway, resplendent in a spotless gown of white . From the context of this passage, we understand that the Groom is Christ.   ...

Christ is risen. He is Risen, indeed.   This deceptively ordinary greeting, most commonly heard on Resurrection Morning as believers greet each other at church, is the decisive hope for our faith. I think we should use this greeting more often, for  “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.  We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.” (1 Corinthians 15:14-15) When I think of Scripture's discussion of the resurrection, no other chapter  speaks more clearly about the resurrection than 1 Corinthians 15.    With that said, go read 1 Corinthians 15, and then come back here.   Did you read it?  Ok then, here are a few thoughts:  Had Christ not  risen from the dead, we see here some direct consequences: 1. There would be no resurrecti...

Traditionally, feijoada is Brazilian black bean dish that includes various parts of the cow that we usually don’t eat (such as stomach and other such parts of the intestines) and is considered a delicacy. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever actually had the real feijoada with such ingredients.  Instead, I’ve just had the alternative method of preparing it that has the undesirable ingredients swapped out for linguica (a type of sausage.) In a desperate attempt to figure out something for supper the a couple weeks ago, I decided to concoct a black bean dish to put over rice.  Without meaning to, this dish accidentally ended up being similar to what I remember feijoada to be!  What a nice surprise!  We went from never eating Brazilian food to having these black beans almost every week! This cheater feijoada dish is definitely going on my list of last-minute, fast, super easy, yummy meals to make when Talitha is being n...

  The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in our Post-Christian World, by Rosaria Butterfield . (Crossway, 2018) I just finished reading this book and it is an excellent read, giving me much to mull over (which is why I’m writing this -- to help me process it all!) This book has drastically redefined my view of hospitality. This book is not what you might expect of a book on hospitality: there are no snippets of practical tips for making your time with your guests stress-free. Neither is there an appendix of tried and true recipes. This book is not a scholarly essay on Scripture’s usage of “hospitality“ and “the Gospel.” Instead, Butterfield compellingly weaves poignant personal examples throughout her book to delineate an earnest plea for the Body of Christ to practice radically ordinary hospitality. Butterfield defines radically ordinary hospitality as the manner of “using your Christian home in a daily way that seeks to make stran...