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Theologians and teachers of God’s word frequently discuss the importance and purpose of the cultural context in which Scripture was written. This is a wise understanding to grasp. It helps us accurately apply Scripture to the cultural context in which the word was...
Knowing where we came from and discovering our true identity is an important realization. At creation, we were created to bear God's image: "So, God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God, he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis...
When I was a street cop, I never quite understood some people's reactions to me when I had to make an arrest. The popular refrain from those who did not like what they witnessed was, “You’re a pig!” It didn’t occur to them to wait to discover a fuller understanding...
The phrase “follow the money” has become popular in our cultural conversations. The statement invites us to look deeper than the surface issues to discover the recipient of money who would gain advantage from its added resource. The problem occurs when we stop at the...
For the last few months, a crippled doe has found a place of rest in our front yard. She was born with a severely deformed leg and has been limping about three-legged all of her short life. The other deer is her brother, a young spike-horned buck who always stays by...
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...