Celtic Odyssey

1 John 4.7-21 (MSG; adapted): 1 7-10 My beloved friends, let’s continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love — so you can’t know God if you don’t love. This is how God showed love for us: God sent the Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we’re talking about — not that we once upon a time loved God, but that God loved us and sent the Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God. 11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and God’s love becomes complete in us — perfect love! 13-16 This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in God, and God in us: we’ve been given life fro...

1 John 3:16-24 (MSG; adapted): 1 16-17 This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear. 18-20 My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re truly living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there’s something to it. For God’s greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves. 21-24 And friends, once that’s taken care of and we’re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we’re bold and free before God! We’re able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we’re doing ...

Last Christmas, I received the Parker Variant razor. It’s a two-piece, adjustable razor. What that means is that one turns the bottom dial to unscrew the top cap of the head to insert the blade. Once the blade has been inserted, it’s screwed back into the razor. One also turns the dial at the bottom of the razor between settings 1 - 5+ to adjust the blade gap of the head. (It sounds more complicated than it really is.) I’ve been using this razor exclusively since then. And like every new razor, one has to adjust to the way it shaves — how it handles the blade exposure, the angle of the razor head to one’s face, the weight and balance of the razor, etc. (This, too, sounds more complicated that it is.) Generally, it just takes a couple of passes before one works out the way the new razor performs. And the learning curve with the Parker Variant was no exception. Recently, I was talking with a colleague in our building and the conversation turned to shaving (I know, that’s kind of a...

Luke 24.36-49 (MSG; adapted): 1 36-41 While they were saying all this, Jesus appeared to them and said, “Peace be with you.” They thought they were seeing a ghost and were scared half to death. He continued with them, “Don’t be upset, and don’t let all these doubting questions take over. Look at my hands; look at my feet — it’s really me. Touch me. Look me over from head to toe. A ghost doesn’t have muscle and bone like this.” As he said this, he showed them his hands and feet. They still couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It was too much; it seemed too good to be true. 41-43 He asked, “Do you have any food here?” They gave him a piece of leftover fish they had cooked. He took it and ate it right before their eyes. 44 Then he said, “Everything I told you while I was with you comes to this: All the things written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms have to be fulfilled.” 45-49 He went on to open their understanding of the Word of God, sho...