My morning reading today was James 3:13 – 18. 13 If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth…

This blog’s been pretty silent for the past six months. We’ve been busily getting ready for a return to working in campus ministry and a move to another state. Still, the event of the collapse of the 35W bridge here in Minneapolis requires at least some recording of thoughts for future review. I don’t want…

I was going through my files on my hard drive this weekend and found a text file of a thread I initiated on a message board I once was a part of. I thought some of the comments would be worth posting on this blog. It was from 2004. Leon LongardWed Apr 14, 2004 2:42…

This morning I was meditating on the first 5 verses of Revelation 14. These verses speak of 144,000 who are spiritually undefiled. They are like pure virgins. They are also described as redeemed from the earth and purchased from among the people of the earth.The sense I get is that this is not a purity…

It’s quite obvious from the last couple of posts that I am reading through the book of Revelation right now. This is always a challenging book for me, because in many places it speaks of a part of God’s character that I would like to forget some times. God is holy (no concern here) and…

Two days ago I was reading Revelation chapter 6. It’s a chapter that speaks of God’s wrath being poured out on a rebellious world.There was a time when I would read a chapter like this with a very ethnocentric and nationalistic interpretation. I don’t know that it was racism as much as growing up in…

A couple of days ago I was reading Revelation 3. Verse 17 stood out to me. You say “I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need anything!” And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Sounds like American culture in many ways. We need…

This weekend we were singing “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman” at a church we attend. The last two lines of the first verse stood out to me: To save us all from Satan’s powerWhen we have gone astray. Here is the essence of the Gospel and something that can speak to a post-modern world. There…

On a personal prayer retreat this past weekend the following verse by Rich Mullins stood out to me. You who live in eternity Hear the prayers of those of us who live in time We can’t see what’s ahead And we can not get free of what we’ve left behind I’m reeling from these voices…

As I sleep at night, I breathAs I toil each day, I breathEach breath touches a place deeper than my lungsIt inhales the spiritual essence from which I was createdIt exhales a passion to pursue first the things of God

I’ve recently been introduced to the music of Peter Mayer. One song from his Million Year Mind album is John’s Garden. It’s an allegory of life written about a fictitious conversation in a pumpkin patch. Farmer John wandered back And when he reached the pumpkin patch, began to speak He said “the weather’s getting colder…

This past week we watched Walk The Line. (With three young children we usually have to wait until a DVD is available at the library.) A while ago a friend had told us how it wasn’t a good movie to watch because it spent too much time on the negative aspects of Johnny Cash’s life…