Clothe yourself with Love Col. 3:14

Without love, nurture and nutrition, no living thing can prosper. We humans are no different. In fact, statistics demonstrate that infants that were not held with love; compassion and proper nutrition, always exhibit troubles of insecurity later in adulthood. How interesting that Psalm 1 provided us with a beautiful imagery similar to the vine and its branches in John 15. The image describes a tree planted close to a river; bearing fruits in due season with leaves that do not wither. The Psalmist was comparing people who walk in the way of righteousness to this beautiful tree with green branches all year. Of course, the tree is healthy because it has had plenty sun; its roots have sufficient water and well-nourished in its soil. All this imagery is pointing to believers with a healthy, strong relationship with God! Their roots are deeply embedded in Jesus. They are grounded in Christ; stable and secure because they are constantly nourished by divine life. It begs the question of what ...

There is a growing issue in our modern world, when it comes to overly opinionated or offended responses. Quite frankly, it has reached an epidemic proportion when one has to either be in offense or defense mode no matter what the subject of discussion is. But this is not new. In Jesus time, it was no different. The Chief Priests and Pharisees were stuck in rigidity over the law that they missed entirely God’s intentions. They were the good guys; they knew the laws since they were educated. Jesus did not fit in any of their category, so they approached him trying to discredit him. The Gospel message today is about correcting some of our misconceptions, where we may think we are absolutely too correct to be corrected. And, wait a minute! That’s when we are realize that we were actually trekking in the wrong direction. The Chief Priests and Pharisees got that same shock after interacting with Jesus. Paul knew our human tendency to be on our high horse because we’re right. So, he encourag...