The DNA of God

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?     Mark 2:7 ESV

When I was a young boy, I got in trouble a lot during summer vacations. My usual transgression was getting caught for wading in the pond on the other side of the creek from our home. See it wasn’t so much that I enjoyed getting wet, I just loved catching polliwogs so that I could bring them home and watch them turn to frogs. Though I ended up countless times being made to sit on my bed for disobeying, it seemed that it was just in my DNA. No matter how often I was told to stop, it never took more than a couple of days for me to gleefully return to the pond.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Jesus got in trouble a lot too, but the trouble that Jesus got in was because He forgave people of their sins. “Just who does He think He is?” the religious people muttered. But, if they had stopped for just a moment to think about His name, they would have known the answer. You see God told Joseph and Mary to name their miracle child “Jesus”, precisely because “He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21. You see, forgiveness was part of who Jesus is because He is God’s Son and forgiveness begins in the very DNA of God. We need that forgiveness every day, and the good news for us is that no matter how much the punishment Jesus had to endure He came to forgive us so we could become His people!

The Cardinal’s Tune

/ pastorpete51 / 3 Comments 
Lord this world seems so big
And I’m here so small
And to this song that you gave me
No one’s listening at all

But when I looked out the door
To a tree down my street
I saw one red cardinal
At the top take his seat

And with all of his might
He sang out God’s tune
Then flew off in a hurry
He still had so much to do!


The Cardinal's Tune by Peter Caligiuri © 2021 All rights reserved

Becoming a Water Walker

/ pastorpete51 / 6 Comments

He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. Matthew 14:29 ESV

When I first became a Christian, I was baptized in a swimming pool behind the church. That might seem strange for some people, but in Arizona having a church pool was not strange at all because it eliminated the need for an indoor baptistry and gave the young people somewhere to go on hot days. I had not read the Bible before Jesus found me and knew nothing more than the creation story and something about loving my neighbor. So, when I learned about Peter getting out of the boat and walking on the water to Jesus I was intrigued. I used to walk around the church pool putting my foot out on the water wondering if I could have enough faith to walk across it. Later, I learned that no one else has figured out that water walking thing since Jesus told Peter to come, 2,000 years ago but I still thought about what his first steps were like. Whether the sea was calm or churning with huge waves really did not matter. Neither option allowed for water walking. In fact, once you walk where feet are not supposed to be able to stand, it really does not matter how far you get from the boat or how deep the water is. You have now entered God’s universe of the impossible and the first thing to remember is that we are not standing on wave tops. We are launching out in faith on the word of Jesus Christ. If He says come, it no longer matters what others think. The only thing that counts is if He is calling, because when Jesus calls, He will also be there to catch you if you start to sink!