The Jesus Way – No Show Prayers
Nuance is a troublemaker. We’d love for our convictions to be well-defined, stark, and without shadows. But that isn’t authentic or realistic. As we judge others with a lack of…
Author: Dale Heinold
Because of a Fig Tree
One day, during the days leading up to Christ’s arrest, Jesus passed by a fruitless fig tree. In the text, Mark 11:12-14, it appears that Jesus unjustly curses the tree…
How Many Apples Are In a Seed?
I have these rules for life. This happens to be the sixteenth in the list. It also happens to be one gleaned from a sign. Many years ago my family…
The Jesus Way – Giving Without Hypocrisy
Have you ever done the right thing in the wrong way? Or perhaps done the right thing with the wrong motives? All of us can probably raise our hand to…
Spoken to You
I’m always amazed at what is tucked away in the Bible for safekeeping. Little insights that have a gigantic impact. One of those gems is hidden in Matthew 22:23-33. Thanks…
The Jesus Way – Be Perfect
There is a difference between goals, aims, and trajectories. To understand the difference, let’s consider an archer. As an archer gathers their bow and arrows, their goal is to hit…
What If?
Does your situation influence your worship? What I mean is this. What are your feelings towards God when things are going wrong? Let’s consider something written long ago by a…
Opening Prison Doors
Recently in our community group gathering my friend Rick said something that opened up a new way of thinking about a familiar teaching of Jesus. I love it when God…
The Jesus Way – Love Your Enemies
Who is the hardest person to love? Or perhaps we could turn this around and ask – Who is the easiest to hate? That person or group is the very…
A Time to Rest
“And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even…
Our Call of Duty
Sometimes I’m surprised by the meaning of words. Even common everyday words can mean something different than our typical usage of them. I’m not talking about slang terms although there’s…
The Jesus Way – Unbalanced Scales
We all have a built-in fairness scale. But, if we’re really honest, we’ll also admit that our fairness scale is skewed a bit in our favor. One part of that…