The Afterword

Tag: god

  • Closer Than You Knew

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    Peter
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    People have always told stories—about gods who died,about love that survives death,about light returning after darkness. Before theology,before churches,there were questionsand songsand open hands. We reached outbecause something in usknew there was more. Some saythese old storieswere just wrong turns—ways of avoiding God. But I thinkthey were honest guesses,not perfect,but not pointless. They came from…

  • Hosanna and Tears – Luke 19:28–44

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    Peter
    in

    (A Lament in the Key of Hallel) It moves in slow motion—this final week.Like a breath held in the lungs of heaven.Something vast is about to crack the sky. Jesus rides.Not on a war horse.On a borrowed colt.No sword at his side,just a heart full of sorrowand a soul set like flint. He’s walked every…

  • This Book Reads Me

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    Peter
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    Well—not a book, exactly. A library. A sprawling, ancient, living library. The Bible. It’s the one I return to daily, not because I’ve mastered it, but because I haven’t. Not even close. You can’t really read it like other books. Not from start to finish, as though it were a novel or a textbook. Genesis…

  • Staying Soft

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    Peter
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    When I was a teenager, I heard someone say something that stayed with me: that he was lucky because he got paid to do what he would gladly do for nothing. He was a minister—an evangelist, to be precise—and his job was to tell people what he knew about God. And people paid him to…

  • Before & After – Mark 4:35-5:43

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    Peter
    in

    Desperation,raw and unfiltered,crashes like waves against the fragile ribs of a boat.Fishermen, seasoned by salt and storm,shake in terror.A storm that silences courage,a darkness that devours hope. And yet—He sleeps.Not indifferent,but unshaken. “Don’t you care if we drown?”They cry out,as I have cried out,when the winds rise and the waters rise and I riseonly to…

  • Bearing Fruit – Mark 4:1-34

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    Peter
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    Mark 4:1-20 Original message by Andrew West, The Bridge Church Macquarie Park NSW The farmer is not careful with his seed.He flings it wide, casting it over stone and soil,over path and thorn and quiet earth.He does not measure the worth of the ground—he only sows, and sows, and sows. Some seed never settles, never…

  • God’s Rescue – Mark 3:7-35

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    Peter
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    They did not look at the mountains,not at the impossible ridges,not at the distance that swallowed men whole.Just one step, then another— Nando and Roberto,walking for those who could not,for those left behind in the silence of snow.# Rescue is the only questionwhen survival is a choice between two unbearable things:The slow starvation of waitingor…

  • Poem for a Friend

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    Peter
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    You stand in a culture that sells mirrorsand handcuffs them to worth.Scales. Dress sizes.The photo where your arms looked better—these are its gods. But you are not here to worship.You are here to rearrange the furniture. You’ve always loved the misfits.Not just the ones who bloom late,but the ones who don’t knowthey were planted at…

  • God Dwelling Among Us – Exodus 40

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    Peter
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    Some pitch tents for pleasure,others flinch at the thought.For Israel, a tent was home, canvas stretched thinagainst the desert night, where God said, Build me a tent,a holy space to live among you. Three parts to His house:Courtyard, Tent, Most Holy Place.Like fire in a chamber, light within light,close to the core, only the chosen…

  • Radiance of Presence – Exodus 33-34

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    Peter
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    There are wounds people leaveseams that split in ways we can’t stitch,hurt that hammers us hollow—a weight we shoulder alone,or so it seems, Until God whispers,“I will go with you,”and his voice presses in, soft like breath,but firm like the groundunder our feet.“If I’m not there,” we say, “we can’t move forward,can’t take another step.”…