The Cactus & The Cross Blog

Mary and Joseph took their baby Jesus from Bethlehem to Egypt. God warned them in a dream that King Herod was on a rampage and they needed to flee to another country. How do you think the Egyptians responded when this family turned up looking for housing, food and jobs? Mary and Joseph stayed in Egypt until Herod died, for about 2 years (Matt 2:19). Did some Egyptians help Joseph find work? Did they find them a place to live? Did they show them the best places to shop? Did th

God has blessed St John’s with fantastic partners in the Gospel: Emmanuel Sudanese Lutheran Fellowship and Vida Nueva Lutheran Church! We’ll be meeting for a combined worship & picnic on Sunday Nov 2 at 11am. We will sing and worship in English, Dinka, and Spanish! We will eat and play and laugh together. It is a preview of heaven: all the saints from every tribe, language, people and nation who have been set free by Jesus from Sin, Death, and the Devil (Rev 5:9)!           H

Ash Wednesday is on February 14th this year—Valentine’s Day. While some may think it strange to celebrate romantic love on the same day...

Have you ever had your phone working but not quite right, dropping calls and apps suddenly closing? Sometimes the best thing is to reset...

Advent and Christmas are natural times to talk about peace. Jesus is, after all, the Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6)! At his birth, the angels...

It’s mid-October as I am imagining myself forward in the future to November and what may be on your hearts and minds in November with All...

Fewer and fewer people in the U.S. are participating in Churches. What can we do? More on that in a minute. The 16th century Reformation...

Leaders aren’t born, they’re grown. Yes, there are some people who seem to have native leadership skills, but I think it only looks that...

I returned from a wonderful family reunion in Pinetop to face that two long-time members of St. John’s had died: Donna Romanowski and...

I think every Christian leader (pastor, teachers, council member, committees, and so on), maybe every leader, should be open to hearing...