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…
Every year, Merriam-Webster releases its word of the year. They take into account the usage of words in search engines coupled with correlating current events to select their word. In 2022 the word was ‘gaslighting’ but now in 2023, the word of the year is ‘authentic’. That sounds super close to a core value of…
I think it is impossible to fathom the level of evil that lies dormant in every single human heart. Hitler was made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen . . . Blood, flesh and bone. And yet he stands as a man who converted a whole lot of potential evil into kinetic evil. The human heart…
Preaching through books of the Bible lands me in some strange places. For example, this coming Sunday I will be speaking in 1 Corinthians 7:1-5 about sexual intimacy within marriage. Not only is this passage about a subject that is rarely spoken of in church, but it also is a subject I don’t think many…
How would you save the world if you had limitless power? Would you eradicate all illness? Would you show up in intimidating power? Would you create educational programs? Eradicate poverty? Eradicate hunger? In First Corinthians chapter 1, the apostle Paul addresses the power of God expressed in providing salvation. And it is so radically different…
If you had told me all the treasure, all the blessings, all the growth that would come to me in the summer of 1993, I would not have walked but I would’ve SPRINTED into that summer. It began with a single conversation with a friend, Jeff Howe. We are both from Michigan but the conversation…
I was planning to write a blog this morning regarding the foundational nature of the Image of God in humanity. This is a bedrock doctrine which can be demonstrated by how frequently it has been attacked by evil and the evil one throughout the centuries. I have not spent much time considering the way that…
I have spent some time the past couple of weeks praying for the revival or awakening or really long chapel service at Asbury Seminary in Kentucky. I have prayed for revival off and on over the years, but I have never really given much thought to what it actually IS that I was praying for.…
