Revival and Renewal

The Work of Casey Dwyer

  • The King Comes in Kindness

    Isaiah 42 Justice is a loaded word. Get it on your side, and you’ve won the argument. In the Bible, the word “justice” is mis-pat, and it simply means judgment. It is the quality of kings and captains, fathers and friends, in which they judge issues, disputes, and even their daily life against the law of God. Continue reading

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  • A Never-Had Memory

    I walked, worn and weary, in straits of my own making. Alone, despair, sun-drenched, dry, soul-wrung, cliff-ridden.  Atop the mesa my eye caught a glimpse of life’s abiding breeze. Of the balm of branch and trunk and leaf.Of shade, a never-had memory. But it left before my heart could swell, lifting my gaze to future groves.  Long ages, epochs, buffeting drought, till, filled Continue reading

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  • The Wedding Procession of the King

    Psalm 45 There’s nothing quite like a wedding. Look far and wide, and in almost every culture you’ll find traditions, celebrations, and rituals signaling when two people leave their father and mother and become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). The Bible is full of weddings, too. The Song of Solomon is all about two lovers and Continue reading

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  • Cursed and Waiting

    The word “Advent” comes from the Latin adventus, meaning “arrival,” and it is a time when the Church has prepared its heart for the arrival of the King. It is a time of waiting, of reminding ourselves where our hope lies, and re-focusing on our anticipation for the second coming of Christ. Tradition tells us that Advent Continue reading

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  • When Brothers Dwell in Unity

    In the days of the psalms, faithful Israelites would wind the hilly paths up to Jerusalem three times a year to celebrate the feast days. This meant a lot of walking, and while they walked, they would sing. Many psalms begin with the little inscription, “a Song of Ascents,” a song to sing on the Continue reading

  • The Transplant Begins

    reflections on our first week They say 80% of our lives is made up of routine: going to the grocery store, sleeping patterns, dinner, chores, church, job, on and on. I feel like even my colds have a pattern they live by.  Maybe that’s why this week has been a challenge. In the whirlwind that Continue reading

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  • Four Years Later—A New Chapter 

    Four years ago, I wrote a blog on this website describing my new position at Village Church of Lincolnshire as Associate Pastor. Looking back at that time, we so clearly saw God’s hand leading us to VCL, opening doors in amazing and surprising ways. I didn’t know what was on the horizon, but I knew Continue reading

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  • He Turneth All to Gold

    If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’ll let you in on a secret: I love the work of the poet-pastor George Herbert (late 16th Century). His poems, regarded as some of the best ever written in the English language, so clearly encapsulate the life of faith. Herbert chose, instead of the avant-garde life of Continue reading

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  • Jesus at the Door

    I hate our doorbell.  Before we bought our house I never once rang the door, but now it is a constant torment.  Why? Well, it’s not a normal, sweet-sounding doorbell. Circa the early 90s, it is a customizable (but wholly unintelligible) electric doorbell system that has been programed to chime the tune (I think) to Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee! as Continue reading

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  • Caterpillar’s Crawl

    I felt joy and love departIn flurries of tangled emotionAnd frantic senses of my weary heartThat disguise themselves as devotion. A mastery I never had,A false birth-right I long pursued,That taught me: “you are nature’s bane;Time’s gate; decay’s despair;The master of your fate; All things rest in your care.” A stillness caught me, I looked Continue reading

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