CCBlogs thinking critically, living faithfully

Ed Sunday-Winters's blog

Early in the morning she is on her way to the cemetery, to the place where he was laid to rest. What is going through her mind as she makes her way to his grave?

Maybe she is blaming herself. Reliving the last few days or even years to try to figure what she might have done to cause his death or what she might have done to prevent it. Painstakingly, she examines her words, her actions trying to find a clue to help her understand why this has happened. What could she have done that would cause things to turn out differently?

Perhaps she is too scared to be thinking of what she might have done or not done, said or not said. Maybe she is concerned for her own safety. After all, he is dead.... READ MORE.

Ed Sunday-Winters's blog

The whole idea that God took on flesh, came to us and lived among us, has challenged the human ability to understand and comprehend since that first Christmas. There are all kinds of questions and few, if any, answers. Answers that give us a thorough explanation of the details of how the creator of human beings becomes a human are not forthcoming. Mystery is the word that the church has often used through the centuries to explain that which is beyond explanation. That is what we say when we don’t know anything else to say. Granted, it is no small thing to be able to look into the pages of scripture, the annals of history, or the faces of the living, and utter a single word in response to the unbelievable, the incredible or even, the unthinkable.

Faith is the gift that enables us to believe what we would not otherwise believe or consider. It gently nudges us beyond the questions of how to look at why God did what God did. John’s gospel tells us that it is love that moved God to come into our world with flesh and bone. God loves us enough to come to where we live and experience life as we experience it. Faith gives us the ability to know that we are loved and accepted by God.

What we should not allow faith to do is to distort the reality in which we still live.... READ MORE.

Ed Sunday Winter's blog

Dr. Roy Honeycutt, then president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, was at Carson-Newman College to preach a campus revival during my senior year. I remember very little of what he said except that in one service, he did preach from the 28th Chapter of Isaiah. The verse that has stuck with me all these years is verse 20: “The bed is too short to stretch out on, the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.” I think this verse has stuck with me because it is just so very true. What it is more uncomfortable than a bed that is too short, unless it a blanket that is too narrow. What is more pleasant than a comfortable bed and warm blanket on a cold night?... READ MORE.

Ed Sunday-Winters’s blog

Reports from North Korea are a startling reminder of the true gift that religious liberty is for those who enjoy it. In North Korean, citizens are expected to worship the emperor. If they don’t persecution, arrest, imprisonment or execution may follow. The Apostle Paul, who experienced his share of persecution and imprisonment, tells the church at Ephesus to “. . . give thanks to God at all times for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The challenge of these words is to give thanks not just when life is good, but when it is difficult. I can only imagine what they mean when they are read by Christians in North Korea. What is like to give thanks when a fellow believer is arrested for being a believer? How does it feel to hear Paul’s words when a family member is imprisoned for the faith or worse?.... READ MORE.