DeLano J. Sheffield is the Business Resource Specialist for Goodwill of MoKan where he connects to people on the fringes, training them to reach their full potential through learning and the power of work; he also is on the frontlines of the advances of the fourth industrial revolution and coaches leaders on diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. He began his career as an architectural engineer then went on to attend seminary. In every part of his life he finds ways to infuse theology into vocation, and strengthen practical connections of faith and daily activity. DeLano lives in Kansas City, Missouri.
It is Far Better to Go Be With The Lord (Part 2)
It is far better to go. That is not only biblically accurate, it just makes good sense. Streets of gold versus potholes; better to go. Christ as the light in a city or rising gas and electrical bills; better to go. No more tears versus tear ducts and allergies; better to go. There are plenty of reasons to contemplate longing and planning for a renewed heaven and a renewed earth. Death would yield something better. But then again, there is a reason to stay.
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It is Far Better to Go Be With The Lord (Part 1)
We often forget how frail and fragmented everything is. Inside the tension and fragmentation we do not only find doom, but rather we find Christ himself and his bidding us to follow—never asking us to atone but instead teaching us that he has atoned for all of it. Christ is really all in all, isn’t He?
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What Good is Any Of It? (Part 2)
Whether there was a letter sent to Paul with questions, or Paul was simply thinking about how his situation affected those in Philippi, it is clear what Paul wanted them to know. It is what we need to become intimately clear about also: dire circumstances can actually bring about redemptive hope.
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What Good is Any Of It? (Part 1)
Whether there is despair, uncertainty, success, or setback, Paul’s first clause affirms a strong reminder: there is always some good to come in every circumstance.
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What is to Come is Real (Part 2)
It may be unclear how our present work is actually turning out to advance the Gospel. But we can learn to live a good life with the same confidence that Paul had.
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What is to Come is Real (Part 1)
Paul was keenly aware of his circumstances as well as the circumstances in Philippi. But he was also aware of another foreign country where it’s always light and where weeping and cursing will be gone. That place informed how he looked at his current circumstances in at least two ways.
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Advent Gives Way to More Advent (Part 2)
Jesus has arrived but this Advent would lead to another Advent. Simeon is unique to us in the sense that we will never know what it’s like to hold the Creator in our arms. But we are the same in that we all wait for the nations and Israel to be one corporate body and behold his glory. Until he arrives with that kind of presence, we wait.
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Advent Gives Way to More Advent (Part 1)
Even when discord and disillusionment abound, there can and will be consolation. Simon was right where he was supposed to be, and he teaches us today two lessons that anxious hearts tend to forget: Advent is about learning to wait well in the silence between promise and realization. And that Advent gives way to more Advent.
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Under the Idol, Part 2
All of humanity is meant to glorify God, to draw attention to the weight of his reputation. We are to steward our relationships to God, others, and creation faithfully. God graciously enables image-bearers to seek for him and reach out for him.
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Under the Idol, Part 1
Right under the Athens idol is the One whom Paul’s hearers are searching for. The only reason they were in Athens—making altars and temples to unreal gods—was because the living God they did not know put them there.
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When the Soul Watches for Him, Part 2
The soul that is reminded by the word will point to life and light worth waiting for—light worth watching for in the darkness.
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When the Soul Watches for Him, Part 1
Out of an abyss of sorts the Psalmist makes a song of ascent.
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Present On That Day, Part 2
On that day God’s presence did not reach out to utterly destroy Israel but instead he gave them four gracious gifts. He came with victory, gladness, covenant love, and singing.
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Present On That Day, Part 1
When we gaze into the familiar with uncertainty, we are trying to make sense of what we are seeing. Zephaniah prophesied during a time where destruction had come. But God’s word repeatedly reminds us by prescription and experience that regardless of the circumstances “the Lord is in your midst.”
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After the Destruction – Part 2
God is present after the disruption and he is fully engaged with his creation because the earth is his.
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