The Barefoot Evangelist

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  • Sunday Reflection – September 12, 2021

      Parable of the unforgiving servant Matthew 1821 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Should I forgive as many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said, “Not just seven times, but rather as many as seventy times seven times. 23 Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like…

  • Kids Korner: Jesus asks us to forgive (September 12th)

    Read Matthew 18:21-35 with your family. Forgiving others is hard, especially if they really hurt you deeply. Sometimes people say “Forgive and forget”, but that isn’t in the Bible, and that’s not what Jesus said. (‘Forget and forgive’ comes from the play King Lear in the 1600’s, and the novel Don Quixote in the 1700’s.)…

  • Teen Time: Forgiveness is a repetitive action (September 12th)

    Forgiveness is not a ‘one-and-done’ action, it’s something we have to return to again and again, depending on the level of hurt. Think of forgiveness as doing exercises, curls or crunches: We would never do only one rep and think we were now in top shape. That’s how forgiveness works. It’s not about the other…

  • Sunday Reflection – September 5, 2021

        A mother challenges Jesus Mark 7 24 Jesus left that place and went into the region of Tyre. He didn’t want anyone to know that he had entered a house, but he couldn’t hide. 25 In fact, a woman whose young daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit heard about him right away. She came and fell…

  • Kids Korner: Jesus heals more people (September 5th)

    Read Mark 7:24-37 with your family. There are two stories of healing. In the second one Jesus uses dust and spit to heal someone so they can see, hear and talk again. It is a great story. The first healing, however, is the really special one. Jesus is tired and doesn’t want to deal with…

  • Teen Time: Jesus and modern healthcare (September 5th)

    Jesus would have supported vaccines and a woman’s right to choose. Too many people are using the Bible as a reason to deny the use of vaccines and a woman’s right to make choices about her body. This is the wrong use of the Bible. How would Jesus deal with vaccines? He healed everyone who…

  • Sunday Reflection – August 29, 2021

        What contaminates a life? Mark 7 The Pharisees and some legal experts from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. 2 They saw some of his disciples eating food with unclean hands. (They were eating without first ritually purifying their hands through washing. 3 The Pharisees and all the Jews don’t eat without first washing their hands carefully. This is a…

  • Kids Korner: Things that defile us (August 29th)

    Read Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 with your family. Do you know what ‘defile’ means? It means to make you dirty in your feelings and your thoughts. Jesus, his disciples and the Pharisee were all Hebrew people, and Hebrew culture had a lot of rules around food. Many Jewish folks today still follow them. They can’t…

  • Teen Time: Sex, ‘values’, and teenagers (August 29th)

    The church should be talking about sex with teenagers, more than simply “don’t do it”. The word ‘values’ often comes with conservative assumptions, but the truth is all Christians have values. Mainline and liberal Christians should be using the word more frequently, and one place we can do that is taking about sex. It’s natural,…

  • Sunday Reflection – August 22, 2021

        Bread of life John 6 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me lives because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. It isn’t like the bread…