Christian Life
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The 12 Days of Christmas Help Us Orient Towards Peace
by Alexei Laushkin For Christians that follow a liturgical calendar within the Western tradition, Christmas marks the start of a 12-day celebration of the events around the birth of Jesus. Christmas covers a series of commemorations as well. We get St. Stephen (from the book of Acts) the first martyr on the 26th, St. John…
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Thanksgiving Stress, Faith and the Holidays
by Alexei Laushkin Thanksgiving around a common table. There are very few moments in American culture where we gather around a common table and spend time with family near and far. Spend time with those we are close to and those we aren’t close to. Time with those we love and those we do not…
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Reconciliation: The Cruciform Cost of Relational Peace-Making
An Object Lesson from the Jacob and Esau Story Grace is costly. It may accrue to us freely, but it cost Jesus dearly. Love is costly, as is peace-making reconciliation. It’s not enough to understand these things as abstractions. We must grow in grace-ness (graciousness) toward others—even those with whom we may disagree or who may…
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Living with Difference Closer to Home
by Alexei Laushkin How does God ask us to handle differences in how we relate to one another in the body of Christ? Many Mainline Protestant, Evangelical, and Pentecostal denominations feel painful tension when their desires for unity run up against seemingly irreconcilable differences. This tension leads to some difficult, but important questions. Questions like,…
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Ways of the Kingdom: Peace and Opposition
As we prioritize seeking first the kingdom of God, we are bound to experience two corresponding realities: a growth in our sense of peace, and at times an unusually strong opposition to every step that we try to take forward in this path. The opposition is usually to be found at the point where we…
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Can We Learn to Accept Difference?
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who…
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Deepening a Prayer Life
Deepening a Life of Prayer How do you make time for God? Many Christians have a great desire to spend time with God, but it never seems to translate to action. Sometimes, we convince ourselves that we lack the time; other times we are simply unsure of where to start or even how to cultivate…
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So, How Do you Seek First the Kingdom of God?
By Alexei Laushkin Our lives are governed by desires and wants, goals and plans, and if we were to think about them we would soon recognize that for most of us these goals, wants, and desires change. Sometimes they change with the season of life we are in, sometimes they change based on circumstance, and…
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How do I take Up my Cross Daily?
guest post by John H. Armstrong One of the most astounding and deeply troubling commands of Jesus in the accounts of the four Gospels occurs in Luke 9. 22 “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be…
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Father Paul Wattson and the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
by Rev. Nathaniel Pierce The Life of Father Paul Wattson Lewis Thomas Wattson was born on January 18, 1863, in Millington, MD, the son of the Rev. Joseph Newton Wattson, Rector of St. Clement’s Episcopal Church, Massey, and Mary Electa Gregory Wattson. After graduating from college he attended the General Theological Seminary in New York.…