ARCHIVE January, 2018

Reminder: Lent 2018 Devotionals Pi and Chi Begin Soon

Reminder: February 14th (Ash Wednesday) is the beginning of Pi and Chi: Asking and Answering Questions Why, our Lent 2018 Devotional Series.  It’ll be 40 days of hard questions and seeking thoughtful answers.  Maybe you always wanted to know.  Maybe you were afraid to ask.  Maybe questions to get you to think outside the box […]

January 29, 2018 in Articles and Devotionals, Devotionals by

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The Tree of Life Returns as Blessing

What do you think of when you think of the tree of life?  Do you think of something like a fountain of youth that would make you immortal if you were to take one bite of its fruit?  Do you think of its fruit magically making your life more fulfilling?  Or do you think of […]

January 23, 2018 in Articles and Devotionals, Devotionals by

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It Wasn’t an Apple and It Didn’t Happen Like This

There are many Fractured Fairytales of the Fall of Man.  In the movie, Walk the Line, Jerry Lee Lewis states, “We’re all going to hell for the songs we sing” as he explains about that “great big apple” and “Don’t touch it.” It reinforces the idea that Eve grabbed an apple from the apple tree […]

January 20, 2018 in Articles and Devotionals, Devotionals by

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Lent 2018–Pi and Chi: Asking and Answering Questions Why

Soon Lent begins.  An annual rhythm, a cycle, a circle, a question repeated: Why?” Every year I pray through what to do for Lent (not so much what to give up, although this year Lent begins on Ash Wednesday otherwise known as February 14th, Valentine’s Day much to the chagrin of vendors of chocolate, a […]

January 19, 2018 in Articles and Devotionals, Devotionals by

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The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

Why, oh why didn’t God warn Adam about that tree?  (He did.)  *** Why, oh why did God put that tree there in the first place? (Because the tree was good, even if the fruit of it was not ripe for mankind’s consumption yet.)  *** Why, oh why didn’t God tell Adam what would happen?  […]

January 17, 2018 in Articles and Devotionals, Devotionals by

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Two Trees of Eternal Significance

Two trees have had more ink spilled on their accounts than any other.  In Genesis 2:9, we see all kinds of trees: “And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground– trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the […]

January 15, 2018 in Articles and Devotionals, Devotionals by

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Adam in the Garden

“In a selfish act of laziness, God created Adam for slavery and shoved him into Eden’s trenches to work as a landscaper and even put him on a hyper-restrictive diet, laying down the law about what he could eat.”  Unfortunately, that is precisely the meaning that way too many people believe when they read Genesis […]

January 13, 2018 in Articles and Devotionals, Devotionals by

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Created for Biodiversity

Genesis 2:8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground– trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. We can all agree that […]

January 10, 2018 in Articles and Devotionals, Devotionals by

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The Abundance of Eden

The Garden of Eden—even the name suggests abundance, everything lush and beautiful.  The romantic view is that the Garden was a tropical paradise, replete with flowering plants and with jungle-like, untamed greenery both wild and wonderful.  Kind of like Costa Rica, only better.  Sorry to pop your bubble, but Costa Rica and even Hawaii aren’t […]

January 7, 2018 in Articles and Devotionals, Devotionals by

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Third Day Gardening

Genesis 1:9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: […]

January 5, 2018 in Articles and Devotionals, Devotionals by

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