February 5: “Living Under the Waters” (Galatians 3:26-28, 1 Peter 2:9)

A daily ritual for Martin Luther was declaring to himself, “I am baptized!” Often, he told others to remember their baptisms. Why should we remember our baptism? What does it have to do with our daily life? Baptism means that we are a new creation in Christ. We have a new identity, new community, new […]

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January 29: “Vocational Liturgies” (Genesis 1:26-28, 2:15)

The creation story is a manifesto, a commission, a charge that sends us into the world to work. The call is to bear God’s image and develop creation’s potential. As sub-creators, we are to unfold creation’s latent potential according to the biblical vision of shalom. To fulfill our calling, we need to regularly be recentered […]

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January 22: “The Gospel Story in Worship” (Colossians 1:15-20)

Like every liturgy, Christian worship comes loaded with its own vision of human flourishing, a kingdom of shalom. Christian worship remakes us in God’s image and sends us out as his image bearers to and for the world. How are we remade in God’s image? By regularly immersing ourselves in the drama of God reconciling […]

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January 15: “The Heart of Christian Formation” (2 Chronicles 20:21-22)

We learn to love certain things through daily practices we are not even aware of. Just as the cultural liturgies have the power to form our desires for rival kingdoms, the practice of biblical worship has the power to form new desires in us for God and his kingdom. The primary actor in worship is […]

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January 8: “Seeing the Secular Liturgies with Apocalyptic Eyes” (Ephesians 1:17-18)

Our habits are not always acquired intentionally. Habits can be formed unintentionally when we regularly repeat rituals without recognizing their formative power. The cultural liturgies are formative practices that work on us unconsciously, training our hearts to love rival kingdoms. One example is shopping in the mall, a practice that turns us into consumers who […]

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