The Hermit and the Blackbird
By Donavon Riley
03/27/26
11mins

The Hermit and the Blackbird

Lent exists because we are forgetful creatures. We forget how hungry we really are.
Getting Over Your Moral Superiority
Daniel Emery Price
Daniel Emery Price
03/26/26

Getting Over Your Moral Superiority

The Pharisee valued fasting and giving tithes, but could not find value in his fellow sinner.
The Original Sin of Preaching: The Constant Craving for a Useful God in Pulpit and Pew
Magnus Persson
Magnus Persson
03/25/26

The Original Sin of Preaching: The Constant Craving for a Useful God in Pulpit and Pew

God is not a tool in our hands. He does not exist to serve our goals, our metrics, or our platforms.

All Articles

Dominick Santore
Dominick Santore
08/13/15

Afflicted and Loved

Some days, I stare at the computer screen, haphazardly pecking at my keyboard, wondering where the words will come from or even if the words will ever come again.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
08/12/15

When God Drags His Feet

For most of us, waiting on God is not funny at all. It makes us wonder if he cares. If he has forgotten us. In our darkest hours, many even wonder if the atheists are right, if our prayers are nothing more than sick words vomited into an empty heaven.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
08/03/15

Grace is Not Dead

Grace is uncivilized, vulgar, rebellious. We make rules for it and it breaks them. Grace is a constant embarrassment to the prim and proper religiosity of the squeaky clean.
Jeff Mallinson
Jeff Mallinson
07/29/15

The Holy Plumb Line

We believers are those who have been called out for a special healing mission in the world because we’ve caught a glimpse of the heavenly city.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
07/14/15

When Rumpelstiltskin Teaches Bible Class

This golden age, recorded in this genealogy, is anything but straw. It is a treasure trove of grace, faith, hope, and love.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
07/08/15

On Mount Moriah You Can See the Whole Bible

Jesus was not killed in Bethlehem as a baby, or in Galilee or Samaria as an adult. He couldn’t be, for it was necessary for him to die in Jerusalem, where Moriah is.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
07/07/15

Your Future Is Behind You

In front of us, in the past, is the hill upon which God has already defeated every foe we might face. On that bloody beam the heel of Christ crushed the head of the lying serpent.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
06/30/15

When the Pulpit Apes the World

The more law-centered a church becomes, the more it and the world become kissing cousins.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
06/23/15

Families in Turmoil

You may not believe it; you may even scoff at the claim, but here’s the truth: God hears your roar of pain on the other side of your silence. He counts every tear you let escape, or refuse to let go, from the ocean of anguish inside you.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
06/15/15

Church in Bed

I can experience almost every aspect of church from the comfort of my own bed. I can prop up my pillow, open my laptop, and enter my very own cyber sanctuary.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
06/12/15

Christianity That Jesus Doesn’t Believe In

No wonder that when young people grow up in a law-saturated, grace-dry church, they leave the faith by droves for all they’ve heard their whole life is a life they can never live up to.
Sam P. Schuldheisz
Sam P. Schuldheisz
06/11/15

Hobbits and Evangelism: Friendship

I have found that Gandalf’s words above ring true, not only in Middle-earth, but in our world as well.
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