The whole nation seemed to be united behind one thing for the past week or so . . . Two people in a spotlight at a Coldplay concert. Now I have a confession . . . I like Coldplay.

I am preaching my way through 2 Timothy and I encountered this verse this week in my deeper dive for my sermon.
2 Timothy 3:9

One of the largest task of any leader is to clarify the answer to the question “why!?” I have been listening to the book “Extreme Ownership” by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. Leif participated in many of the missions to regain the Iraqi city of Ramadi.

War is a a huge concept found in a tiny word. If words carried the gravity of their meaning, the word for the concept of ‘war’ ought to be something like 17 syllables. But this is English so “infinitesimal” means really small and “big” means large. I woke up thinking about war this morning, because…

I have recently been made aware of a particular woman with a large following who has made a list of unapproved theologians and pastors and authors.  Of course, she is the common thread.  Her list includes Daily Grace Co.  Her list includes John Piper.  Her list includes Tim Keller.  Her list includes the Bible Project.…

I often tell people in my role as a pastor that we need to keep reading the Bible in order to keep exercising our faith.  I think many of us have a tendency to think of faith as a static thing.  Either I have it, or I don’t.  But faith, as evidence of things not…

Several years ago, I was more in touch with contemporary culture.  I would blog nearly every week on Thursdays and I used my blog as an opportunity to exegete our culture, much like I use my sermons on Sunday to exegete a passage of the Bible. But something shifted, and I am not sure if…

God has created a world in which we experience time as past, present, and future. I cannot conceive of any other type of world, but I’m sure God can. For some reason, God seems interested in the progress of His creation. We learn from the past. We live in the present. And we anticipate the…

I don’t know how long you’ve been kicking around on this planet, but I’ve been here for over half a century. And that doesn’t make me any kind of expert. I could live here for centuries and still find surprises that would challenge my perceptions. But one thing that doesn’t take very long at all…

The shift has been subtle.  Like the proverbial frog getting cooked in the pot as the heat is turned up in slow increments, it feels like we got here over years.  In the 90’s Bill Clinton gave the entire country a framework of discussion surrounding the killing of babies in their mother’s womb.  He declared…

I have had two recent meetings and a couple of passing conversations at the coffee shop about the nation of Israel.  It also came up at our Saturday morning men’s group.  The two sit-down meetings were from visitors feeling out what kind of church we are.  They were coming from two different churches who have…

I read 50 books this year spanning from the weighty “Systematic Theology” by Wayne Grudem to the tiny and quick, “Policy Governance Model” by Carver. A few of the books were indulgent science fiction fantasy novels that are not really worth a mention.  Several of them were commentaries on a specific book of the Bible…

My wife is one of the strongest people I’ve ever met.  She gave birth to three quite sizable humans, without pain medication and barely a word of complaint.  She is strong.  I say that to set the stage for what comes next. Linda has been diagnosed with MS.  She continues to be strong through this…