Blog
This morning, I brought Jan flowers, a card, and a gift to honor her on Valentine’s Day. I am thinking back fifty-five years ago to our first date. One night, I entered the cafeteria at Multnomah University, where we were students, then known as Multnomah School of...
When we think of a prophet in the Old Testament, we have various understandings about who they were. Some of God’s prophets were simple people whom the Lord used to reveal profound truths. Amos was a shepherd and a sycamore fig farmer. He was a matter-of-fact kind of...
Not all nations follow the Lord. Until those nations align with the Lord, even in their unredeemed state, they can still extend honor to other nations that have chosen to follow the Lord. This applies to all nations regarding the Great Commission the Lord spoke over...
I love wide-open spaces. An expanse of sagebrush, quaking aspen draws, and old, weathered cabins are a thing of beauty to me. Traveling along a dirt road far off the asphalt beaten path and seeing these old structures speaks to me. I can imagine a stagecoach pulling...
In many ways, the nine years I spent as a cop before becoming a pastor prepared me for the ministry. Being a cop gave me an understanding of life's gritty reality. It also helped me understand how people would sometimes respond to fear. Life has a way of becoming a...
The fires of revival never really burn out. Someone somewhere is carrying the embers of a revival from the past. It only takes a single act of faith to reignite the smoldering embers and release a wildfire of God's presence. Fire agencies have been getting calls...
As I recover from knee surgery to repair a ruptured tendon, I find myself up at all hours of the night taking pain meds and icing my knee. I write this just a bit after 1:00 am from our living room hoping to let Jan get a few more hours of sleep. I need to keep my...
Yesterday, I found myself singing the Simon and Garfunkel song “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” It is one of those songs that can have a unique and widespread application to the challenging situations of life. Our world has always had troubled waters, but of late, we...
The turning point in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah took place when a mob of men, both young and old, came and surrounded Lot’s house. They demanded that Lot bring his two angelic visitors outside so they could have sex with them. Lot stepped outside his front door...
When I think of the biblical characters of Scripture, I think of a hearty people. They were robust because the societies in which they lived required a certain level of internal fortitude just to survive in their hostile and inconvenient world. Those of us thousands...
I came across an unpleasant article about a struggle that sheepherders are having in the United Kingdom. Crows are attacking the ewes in their flock pecking out their eyes as the mother lays defenseless on her side during the birth process. After pecking out the...
It's easy to live within a prophetic echo chamber. These echo chambers are where familiar language, imagery, and modes of presentation are valued so highly they become the means through which we discern the content of a prophetic word. Some elements within the...
In one of Tom Clancy’s novels, Debt of Honor, Japan goes to war against the United States. In the conflict, a 747 pilot with Japan Airlines is mentally traumatized by the death of his son and brother during the conflict. On a flight into Washington D.C., he flies his...
The world is restless and so are many within the Church. Peace amid chaos seems like an impossibility. The division chaos has created appears too deep and entrenched to overcome. There is hope, a single hope that has the power to overcome the chaotic affairs of our...
In January of 2020, the Lord asked Jan and me to withdraw into an extended season of sabbatical. This sabbatical meant we would need to disconnect across the board from the familiar. We were already in that place of isolation when the pandemic lockdown was...