By Timothy W. Ross

• I Pledge Allegiance by Timothy W. Ross (1/10/2017)
  ...xt week we inaugurate a new president. We had such high hopes for our last president. He was good looking, cool, smart. He had a beautiful family. He read books. He shot threes. He spoke in complete sentences. He was black and white and African and Indonesian and American. He was Kansas and Chicago. He was Yale and Harvard and the University of Chicago. He was Christian. He was Muslim—well, it...
• Loved for What We Have in Us by Timothy W. Ross (10/25/2016)
  ...en they emerged from the wilderness and marched around Jericho’s walls. Mark Antony thought so too. He gave Jericho as a gift to Cleopatra, tossing in Arabia as an afterthought. Cleo leased Jericho out to King Herod, charging him half the yearly profits of all Judea. And how do you suppose Herod skimmed off enough cash to pay the mortgage? Look no further than one man who had his boney fists wr...
• God Calls People by Timothy W. Ross (8/18/2016)
  ...’s pressing issues. Yet if you pressed me on the matter, I would be forced to admit that I too have been called by God.<!--more--> My real introduction to this passage came long ago when I lived in the bush of Africa. Our family was part of a church-planting team among a tribal people. We were the only foreigners for miles around, and even though the tribal people were good to us, it was ...
• Love = Obedience by Timothy W. Ross (4/21/2016)
  ...nessee, it’s illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while operating a vehicle. In Indiana, it's against the law to <em>shoot open</em> a can of food. In Kentucky, it's a crime to use a reptile during any part of a religious service. Many Christians are big on rules. It’s common in my community to see Ten Commandment signs posted in driveways. Don’t you find it a little odd that the one religiou...
• Transformative Worship by Timothy W. Ross (1/19/2016)
  ...Ezra, surrounded by fellow priests and Levites, processed through the throng, carrying the sacred text. After years of exile, God’s Word would be heard in Jerusalem. Ezra climbed onto the wooden platform and the congregation went silent. He opened the Book and a thrill ran through the crowd. People shouted, “Hallelujah! Bless the Lord!” Ezra prayed, perhaps remembering the ways that Israel ha...
• Nightmares of the Rich by Timothy W. Ross (10/6/2015)
  ... that rich people don’t go to heaven!” “We’re not rich,” said her mother, “Go back to bed.” “But I knew better,” said the grown-up Stacey. “I knew I had all I needed plus plenty more…the little girl inside me knew that these words of Jesus were clear, and hard, and scary.”<!--more--> Jesus was on the move, Mark tells us, when an unnamed man came to Jesus, knelt down and asked: “G...
• Revolutionary Danger by Timothy W. Ross (9/9/2015)
  ...les began to learn that lesson at Caesarea Phillipi. Caesarea Philippi is a site of incomparable beauty and longstanding political turmoil. Known today as Banias, or Panias, this once Syrian, now Israeli-controlled site in the foothills of Mount Hermon is a major source of the Jordan River. Spring-fed streams tumble through the area, making it one of the most picturesque sites in all the Holy L...