Blog
Perhaps it’s our age, but Jan and I are praying for the time when one of us dies and the other is left alone. After 51 years of marriage, we have become so one in the Spirit that it will be impossible, in human terms, to process that time and the emotional loss the...
In 1949, when the Communist Party took over the nation of China, Mao Zedong assumed the role of national leadership over the newly established People’s Republic of China, a Marxist–Leninist single–party state–controlled political system. Counterrevolutionaries to the...
I watched an interview being conducted with a group of elders from a native tribe who live in the Arctic. These elders were sitting together in a field while they were being interviewed. There were no scientific measuring devices present. They recognized that...
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...
When the crowds came to Jesus, he did not try to hold them. He fed them and walked away. Compromise comes when we try to hold the crowd. If you have experienced a certain degree of success, you may have attached some of your ego and identity to that success....