By Sister Cheryl Jacobs Matthew 5:5 – Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. A song about the Beatitudes I especially enjoy is A City on a Hill by The City Harmonic. The song highlights the irony in this verse with the line: Blessed are the meek, with the world at your feet. I […]
By Brother Stephen Rankin You’ve been working in the garden on a warm Spring Day, absorbed in digging weeds and turning the soil to get ready for planting. Suddenly, you realize that you’re very thirsty. From that moment, until you are able to stop and get a drink, you can hardly think of anything but […]
By Brother Guy Ames Jesus’ amazing Sermon on the Mount sets the picture of God’s New Kingdom – not like the natural ways we try to live, rather a paradox. Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who hunger for righteousness, blessed are those who are persecuted for doing right all speak to […]
By Brother Matt Henson Gaining access to someone who is famous can be a lot of work. Whether it is purchasing a backstage pass for a famous singer or going through the process of background checks and applications to visit a world-leader, work must be done. If the access is granted, we spend time in […]
By Brother Wade Paschal “Love your Neighbor as you love Yourself” (Matthew 19:19) The commandment to love my neighbor as I love myself implies a relationship between how and why I love myself and love of neighbor. So what is that relationship? Growing up I often heard people talk about “self-esteem” and the “problem” of […]
By Brother Brian Shimer “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind.” (Matthew 22:36-40) Before this point of Matthew 22, Jesus had silenced the Sadducees. The Pharisees put forward a lawyer who asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” They thought, if Jesus named the greatest commandment, […]
The minimalist life is “living with things you really need. It means removing anything that distracts us from living with intentionality and freedom” (www.becomingminimalist.com). It is a lifestyle that seems to me to be easily spoken and written, but difficult to execute. The minimalist lifestyle calls for a measure of fasting and heart change to […]
By Brother Matthew Henson Robert Boyd Munger wrote the booklet, My Heart, Christ’s Home, in 1954. I was immediately drawn to this booklet when I was first introduced to it when I was on staff of Campus Life and Youth for Christ in Lexington, Kentucky in the early 2000s. In the opening section of the […]
By Brother Brian Shimer Have you ever had the experience of being bowled over? Not literally thrown off your feet, but spiritually, emotionally brought alive, shaken from one place to another, having your eyes opened to what was always there but never seen? Perhaps it happened in an especially moving worship setting, or under great […]
By Brother Doug Ruffle Author’s note: I was asked by staff of The Upper Room to record a short video in Spanish for their weekly broadcast, which is produced in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The following is an English language rendering of the video script. “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for […]
