Blog
A fear of death is what motivates the choices many people make in this life. Where they place their trust will produce either peace or turmoil, depending upon who or what they follow. Not all the choices people make to preserve their lives are good. Some of those...
There are times when Scripture speaks loudly from history into our present moment. We are living in such a time. God is still God and He has not changed no matter how soft we make our theology. God is actively at work in the nations because it's in the context of our...
Having spent several years as a Law Enforcement officer, I can address this topic with some credibility. Life is very different today than when I served, but the principles of good and true law enforcement remain for those who practice its ethics. We are entering a...
Between the Day of Pentecost mentioned in Acts 2 and the persecution noted in Acts 8, a span of 3-4 years had transpired. During those years, the Church gathered around Solomon’s Collonade. It was a beautiful time of sharing resources, feeding the poor, and seeing...
I had a funny thing happen last night. Jan and I were asked to be part of a prayer team to pray over pastors at a conference in Bend, Oregon. Each of us on the prayer team was handed a small tin of anointing balm infused with frankincense and myrrh. The balm was a...
God is in charge of the outcome of our faithfulness. The clearest evidence that we trust God is seen when, after doing all we can, we choose to rest in God’s faithfulness.
This week, Jan and I were out of town for a conference. A comfortable room in a nice hotel was provided for us. If you travel, you may have experienced what I am about to share. I awakened at night and rolled over to check the time on the illuminated digital clock as...
In your transition, you will cross a spiritual frontier. All spiritual frontiers have demons guarding them. Don’t ignore this reality. Stepping through the gates of transition will cause them to react. Every physical crossing recorded in scripture was a...
In each cultural revolution in human history, it was the poets, musicians, painters, writers, and cultural prophets who first publicly portrayed the enslaving injustice of their time – an injustice ultimately against the heart of God. These expressions of prophetic...
Anger rising, creating edges, sharp edges of opinion always cutting, flashing out against opposing thought. Our voices becoming angry scissors cutting each other. Why so angry? Violent words, a bloody dialogue falling, dripping red ink...
The title comes from the world of journalism. Blood and gore catch the attention of an audience. It’s not just the blood and gore of murder, catastrophe, or natural disaster that gains our attention; it is the blood and gore of broken lives, broken political systems,...
Some of the imbalance you are feeling could be God applying the brakes on your self-effort and worry. It's like sitting in a car when someone uses the brakes to avoid a crash, and you are thrown forward under the force of deacceleration. Not everything in God’s...
This morning, I am making pancakes for breakfast. After I got the coffee going, I melted some butter in a pan, then added a cup of fresh blueberries, some maple syrup and set the pan on the stove at a slow simmer. I went about a few more morning tasks then turned off...
G. K. Chesterton, the British writer, philosopher and lay theologian of the last century once wrote, “Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.” Faith without the presence of lines is not faith. It is an emotion. In the public square, drawing a...
Last week, Jan and I were taking communion and praying together like we do each day. After we received the bread and wine, we prayed over our children, our marriage and some of you who are reading these words. It was still early in the day, and the morning sunlight...