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All of us are living in a time of transition, both in the Church and within culture. This time of transition is not our destination. Knowing that reality will prepare us for what is coming. https://www.facebook.com/1442665059/videos/1102804481011705
We have entered the Christmas season, and we all celebrate family traditions. The Elkins home has family traditions as well. There is nothing wrong with our traditions if they are not linked to our salvation. That linkage is dangerous. Those religious traditions are...
When Jesus returned to Nazareth, His hometown, He was not accepted. The residents had known Jesus and his family. When Jesus spoke, the people of Nazareth were amazed and asked, “Where did He get all this wisdom and the power to perform such miracles” (Mark...
Strong leaders don’t wait for approval before they act for the good others. They do what they can to serve people in their moment of need and deal with the flak of dissenters later. Find this kind of leader and you will have found a leader with a heart after God.
It is 2:00 a.m. as I write these words. I awoke an hour ago to the strong smell of smoke. We have experienced smoke from forest fires before, but this was the strongest yet, almost like a billowing smoke warning us that fire was near. Since we are surrounded by...
We currently have at our disposal the fastest vehicle of migration ever known to humanity: the Internet. We are moving at warp speed through time and space, exposed to differing worldviews and ideas previously isolated within a specific culture and not easily...
I used to read Psalm 133:1 differently than I do today. “How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!“ I thought the verse meant we all had to come to an agreement on every point of our preferred theology and understanding of...
Tomorrow is Sunday. Give your pastor a gift. The gift is believing the best about them. Everyone has an opinion, and those opinions can go in a hundred different directions. Every pastor that I know tries to do their best to love God and serve people. Even on their...
We have spent decades telling and re-telling followers of Christ who they are as believers and how to live a blessed life. Those are all necessary and good, but there is something we may have missed. Today, many in the Church know nothing of spiritual warfare,...
I want to be able to see. I want to see people and life differently. I want to see what Heaven is revealing, not what has been prepared for me as a false vision with a less than honorable motive. I want to see what my brokenness has blinded me from seeing. Throughout...
Jan and I have a good friend, Bo Stern-Brady who has developed a ministry called Soul Space. Soul Space offers daily meditations (about 5 minutes in length) to help draw us closer to Jesus, nourish our souls, and shed some of the stress of life we picked up along the...
There are times when walking down the middle of the cultural road between two noisy opinions is right where God wants His people to walk. This middle of the road approach can appear like a compromise to a religious spirit, but many times it is from that middle place...
In 1939, my mother was engaged to my father. During their engagement, she bought my father a new shotgun. For the last 81 years, that shotgun has remained in our family. When my dad passed away, my brother was given dad’s Winchester Model 70 30-06, and I was...
At this time, when so much emotion is swirling about, and when each person holds a passionate and immovable position, it is too easy to forget what is taking place. Death is manifesting its presence, and that manifestation is taking many forms. There is a spirit...
Habakkuk, the small book of prophecy seems to address where a believer can find themselves today as our culture continues to struggle. I read Habakkuk this morning and overlayed its content over the current season. It is a beginning-to-end portrait of faith in times...