Good morning! May you know that mercy is made new every day. #MorningMug #Discipline2025

A person holds a coffee mug in a cozy living room with patterned chairs and a lit fireplace.

Once again, Bonhoeffer challenges us in a timely way.

Entirely too many of my colleagues are not submitting themselves to the way of the cross but to their own passions.

Oh that I (we) would learn this lesson well.

One way to love well is to develop healthy boundaries that free you to bond with others as equals, knowing that inherent in all people is both good and bad.

The most subversive things we can do in these times is love without condition, correct error with truth in grace, and acknowledge our own blind spots with humility.

Fermenting hate, denigrating the humanity of other people, and withholding mercy makes one the very thing they are opposed to.

We can do better.

I know we can.

I have seen it.

I can do better.

#Wordle 1,335 4/6*

⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛ 🟩🟩⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩⬛🟩⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

The #OldGal posted a 4 today as well. Any 3s out there?

Good morning! May you choose to be kind today. #MorningMug #Discipline2025

Sometimes when you’re working on sermon you get a bit overwhelmed by the text. I am going to teach Micah over the next three weeks and woof. It’s punching me in the gut.

This Sunday at Peace Presbyterian Church in Flint at 10:45 am and at The Acts 13 Network in Ypsilanti at 530 pm we will begin a three week exploration of the prophet, Micah. His message of doom and hope is timely for us today.

If you’ve been looking for a faith community in Ypsilanti or Flint, I hope you will join us.

A single lit candle is centered on a black background with the text "Doom and Hope: Reflections on the Prophet Micah" above it.

I am staring at my to do list and I have no interest in it whatsoever. I am just going to start at the top.

Here…

We…

Go…

Oh my! This new Micro Social app for Micro.blog is gorgeous.

Good morning! May your to-do list shrink today. #MorningMug #Discipline2025

#Wordle 1,334 4/6*

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟨⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟨🟩⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

The #OldGal also scored a 4 today. Any #YoungPups with a birdie?

People of a certain age all have some shared television experiences. First, when we were sick and home from school we would watch The Price is Right. Second, when we stayed up late watching something on TV we would inevitably see something called an “infomercial.” Read the rest…

Jesus in Conversation - Philip and Nathanael

People of a certain age all have some shared television experiences. First, when we were sick and home from school we would watch The Price is Right. Second, when we stayed up late watching something on TV we would inevitably see something called an “infomercial.”

These long form commercials somehow would suck you in and you just couldn’t turn it off. The salesperson would be doing their pitch and then they would say, “But wait! There’s more!” Then they would sweeten the deal.

A whole generation was trained by television to wait for something more. Perhaps this is why my generation is typically unimpressed by many things and always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Because, it turns out that, “wait, there’s more,” isn’t only for good stuff.

As I was reading through this next conversation with Jesus that is recorded in John’s Gospel, I couldn’t help but think that there might have been a narrator in the background saying, “but wait, there’s more…”

The first season of this podcast was very helpful for me to think through biases. It really challenged me to think through the way I thought about “those people.”

In our current cultural moment, perhaps you will find this helpful as well.

Learning to See with Brian McLaren

Good morning! May you press into that difficult thing you have been avoiding. #MorningMug #Discipline2025

A cozy living room setting features a lit fireplace, a comfortable sofa, and a hand holding a mug of coffee with the words "And So Begins the Adventure."

#Wordle 1,333 X/6*

🟨⬛⬛🟨🟩 🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩 🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩 🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩 🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩 🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩

The #OldGal scored a 3. My streak broke at 528.

I am resonating deeply with Bonhoeffer these days. Here is another of his theses against the “Aryan Paragraph” from 1933.

The German Christians say: For the sake of the patriotic sentiments of German church people, a leader in the church must be Aryan.&10;Michael P. DeJonge, Clifford J. Green&10;The Bonhoeffer Reader&10;#kindlequotesWe answer: Church people must learn to pay attention not to the person of the pastor but rather to the pastor's proclamation. "What does it matter?&10;Just this, that Christ is proclaimed in every way.." [Phil. 1: 18). If Paul, a Jew, had not proclaimed Christ to the heathen world, without worrying about any patriotic sentiment, there would never have been a German church.&10;Michael P. DeJonge, Clifford J. Green&10;The Bonhoeffer Reader&10;#kindlequotesThis demand for the gospel to be preached by Aryans is a typical demand of those who are weak in the faith, so they want to set up legal restrictions in matters where, in truth, only faith and the Word of God has a say. This demand from the weaker members of the congregation might possibly be considered in exceptional individual cases, for pastoral reasons, to avoid giving serious offense. But in each such case the most earnest thought should be given to whether, for the sake of what church is about, the congregation should be asked to tolerate an offense to its sensibilities. It is totally impossible, however, to allow the demands of the weak in the faith to rule the church, because that means turning the freedom of the gospel into its opposite, a law.&10;Michael P. DeJonge, Clifford J. Green&10;The Bonhoeffer Reader&10;#kindlequotes

Good morning! May you know people care about you today. #MorningMug #Discipline2025

#Wordle 1,332 5/6*

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬛🟩⬛⬛⬛ ⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩 ⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Not a great score, a bogey. But, it was good enough to beat the #OldGal who lost her streak today!!!

#Wordle 1,331 2/6*

⬛🟩🟨🟨⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

The #OldGal posted a 3, but it just wasn’t good enough.

Good morning! May you enjoy time in community today. #MorningMug #Discipline2025

A person holds a mug labeled "AROHA" in a cozy living room with a fireplace and patterned furniture.

#Wordle 1,330 3/6*

⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨 🟩🟩⬛⬛🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

The #OldGal scores a 4 and victory is ours!

Good morning! May you do something today that makes you smile. #MorningMug #Discipline2025

A person is holding a mug with a "National Baseball Hall of Fame" design in a cozy living room setting.

During the 1933 Prussian Synod Dietrich Bonhoeffer offered multiple theses to challenge the “Aryan Paragraph.” The “German Christians” were those aligning with the Nazi party, “We,” was the nascent Confessing Church.

Currently reading: The Bonhoeffer Reader by Michael P. DeJonge 📚

The German Christians say: The German church people can no longer endure communion with Jews, who have done them so much harm politically. We answer: This is the very point where it must be made crystal clear: here is where we are tested as to whether we know what the church is. Here, where the Jewish Christian whom I don't like is sitting next to me among the faithful, this is precisely where the church is. If that is not understood, then those who think they cannot bear it should themselves go and form their own church, but never, ever, can they be allowed to exclude someone else. The continuity of the church is in the church where the Jewish Christians remain.&10;Michael P. DeJonge, Clifford J. Green&10;The Bonhoeffer Reader&10;#kindlequotes