“Epiphany” is a Greek word that means “manifestation.” Sometimes “theophany” is a synonym. That means “vision of God.”
Epiphany is a holiday on the church calendar. It usually falls sometime in January. For most Western Christians, it marks the visitation of the magi (kings) to the baby Jesus. They saw the manifestation of God in the form of the human. Continue →
No one likes to receive bad news, whether it be from a doctor, an employer, a friend, a child, or a teacher. We just don’t like to receive bad news. It’s a lot more fun and certainly more pleasant to receive good news. But I ran across this verse the other day: “He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.” (Psalm 112:7, NIV) Continue →
At the area fellowship I attended this weekend, I met Aaron Warkentin. Aaron works with disabled adults, many of them in wheelchairs or with severe mobility issues. What was so unusual was he took a group on a backpacking trip to the High Sierras. He kept saying, “We got to take them places they could never go before!” Continue →
This weekend, I flew from Philadelphia to an area fellowship and left my car in a very large outdoor parking lot at the Philadelphia Airport to return on Sunday afternoon. It all seemed so easy and so ordinary to do. The problem was that on Saturday we received several inches of snow, followed by freezing rain, and so all the cars in this huge parking lot all looked the same – white and glistening in the afternoon sun with a thin coating of ice, which held in about five inches of snow. Continue →
Most Christ-followers know Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be conformed, versus being transformed, and I think there are some significant differences. Continue →
The last couple of weeks, we’ve seen our kids make serious steps in terms of their educational processes. We dropped our daughter off at Westmont College in Santa Barbara to finish her junior year and experienced a little bit of the community of Christ-followers she will experience over the next few months. I’m proud of how she is learning and growing.
This weekend, our son graduated from Dominican University with a master’s degree in library science. As he walked across the stage, I thought to myself how important education is. He will always have his master’s degree. No matter where life takes him or what takes place, he will always be educated. You can’t take education away. Continue →
