Consider this

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the story of a man who was going on a journey. Before he left, he called his servants together and gave them some money to look after until his return. “To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. "After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents … said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.' His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' "The man with the two talents also came.’Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.'… His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! "Then the man who had received the one talent came… I was afraid and...

This past week, the world watched as workers brought thirty three Chilean miners back to the surface after they had spent seventy days underground. The scene at the mine was nothing short of impressive. Wives hugged husbands. Children and mothers cried as they awaited the arrival of the next miner. People celebrated and church bells rang. More impressive, maybe, were the words spoken by the men. For example, Mario Sepulveda Espina said, “Life is short. In one minute you can lose it. In one minute it can all be gone. Don’t worry so much about money. Live your life. Live every second of it.” Suddenly, little things were important. Hugging their families, or seeing their sons became a big deal. In fact, just having another day to live was worth celebrating. Things change when you get a second chance to live your life. In Acts chapter 8, a follower of Jesus, named Philip, meets a man from Ethiopia. This man was reading from the book of Isaiah and he was confused, so it says, ...

On Wednesday nights, I help with an “English as an additional language” course that our church offers. This past week my friend Juwon and I were reading from Acts chapter 2 where it says that the “believers shared everything with each other” (verse 42). We were struggling with this paragraph because I was having trouble explaining the meaning of the word “shared”. Suddenly, though, he understood and once he had that one word, the rest of the paragraph made sense. Sometimes, one word or one phrase makes all the difference. This past week I have been thinking about a phrase from the Gospel of Mark. The angel at Jesus’ tomb says these words, “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go and tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him as he told you’” (Mark 16:6-7). The phrase that I have been thinking about is, “He is going ahead of you”. I know...