Genesis 38:9, the story of Onan spilling his seed on the ground, is one of those Bible tales that many people know, yet don’t necessarily know its context. Judah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, had three sons: Er, Onan, and Shelah. Er married Tamar; however, “Er was very evil and the Lord took […]
In this blog I’m going to write about one of those pesky verses in the gospels that we all know is there yet it’s often easier to pretend it isn’t, Matthew 16:24: “Then Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take […]
In Matthew 6:25, Jesus tells us not to worry: “I tell you not to worry about your life. Don’t worry about having something to eat, drink or wear. Isn’t life more than food or clothing?” (Matthew 6:25 CEV) Yet now, more than ever, there seems so much to worry about. We live in a highly […]
On the rocky road to creating ROCI21, I went through a painful process of emotional upheaval as all that was dysfunctional and damaged, old and outworn, surfaced in my life so I could accept, forgive, release it and grow towards Christ. During this time, as my life, job and friendships collapsed around me, I turned to […]
One day in 1983, Henri J. M. Nouwen, a Catholic priest and bestselling author, went to visit a friend. He was captivated by a print in his friend’s studio—a reproduction of Rembrandt’s painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son. The painting impelled Nouwen on a spiritual quest lasting almost a decade, which included visiting the […]
