christian spirituality – Page 2 – Jesus @ 2 am blogs and podcast

God, Self & Other – Luke 11: Love Beyond Every Boundary (Healing a Man with Leprosy)

June 14, 2017June 14, 2017Kirk WinslowLeave a comment

If you’ve ever wondered how far the grace of God extends, the short answer is: beyond every imaginable barrier and boundary.

In this episode we look at Luke 5:12-16 – a short, but dramatic, encounter between Jesus and a man afflicted with leprosy. In the ancient world, few conditions were more feared or carried greater stigma. And Judaism held strict rules about contact between lepers and literally everyone else. Yet Jesus crosses every prohibition of fear and piety to take confer healing to a child of God in need. It is a first glimpse of what theologians refer to as “the great exchange” – Jesus taking what is ours (the curse of sin) and making it his, taking what is his (shalom) and making it ours.

To anyone who has ever thought themselves “too far gone” to be welcomed by God, this is yet another reminder that there is no such condition.

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Losing Faith, and Finding God after “God”

May 24, 2017May 24, 2017Kirk WinslowLeave a comment

Doubt, true doubt (not the mere intellectual variety, but the deep questioning an agonized soul), is one of the most painful and most necessary aspects of the life of faith. All the great saints have been through it. From Augustine in his Confessions to St. John of the Cross’s Dark Night of the Soul, the church possesses a wealth of insight into losing faith so as to find it more profoundly.

In this episode, our friend Rev. Mike Regele shares his own, very personal doubt. It is a courageous look into the sources of doubt, the pain of doubt and the frightening questions that arise – all amidst a backdrop of experienced faith that has been here before. It is one of the most profound sermons I’ve heard and I’m glad to be able to share it with you.

During the sermon, Mike references a book that has been tremendously helpful to him, Anatheism, by Richard Kearney. And if you like Mike’s sermon, you might check out Mike’s books, too!

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God, Self & Other – Luke 10: How Honest Faith Begins (Calling of Peter, James and John)

May 17, 2017May 17, 2017Kirk WinslowLeave a comment

True faith doesn’t happen in an instant. At least it didn’t for Peter…or James or John (Jesus’s innermost circle)! Honest faith is a process that unfolds over a lifetime, and contains elements of wonder, doubt, confusion, awe, more confusion, agony, guilt, healing… This up-and-down, in-and-out journey is the authentic process of transformation (sanctification), and is the message we are to proclaim to the world.

In this episode we look Jesus’s calling of his first disciples and the manner in which their life of faith began. It’s a lesson in the realities of the Christian life and the gospel to which every disciple bears witness.

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