Blog
Almost 50 years ago, in my first few months of pastoring, I was sitting around a table with five other young and inexperienced pastors. We were in a small meeting room at Montana State University in Billings, Montana. Seated with us was Jerry Cook, pastor of East Hill...
In my normal morning routine, I am awake before the first light of the morning appears in the sky. In those pre-dawn mornings, I can hear birds begin to sing as they anticipate the coming dawn. Recently, I’ve been listening to instrumental worship music to...
There is more to a verse than just its opening line. Surrounding passages of Scripture give us a broader view of what the verse is addressing. Take the first part of Psalm 46:10, for example: “Be still and know that I am God.” The surrounding context...
Today, the idols held sacred and put on display in our culture will be demolished by the presence of the Lord. The assumed victories of these false gods will not stand forever. Truth will be used to bring them down to defeat. A compromised priest named Eli had two...
Some answers to our prayers are not meant for us to possess. Those answers are to be given to the Lord for His use, because the answers were a miracle, not something we were able to accomplish. Scripture tells us of a woman named Hannah who was married to a man named...
Jan and I learned something years ago that had to do with creating a spiritual safety border around our finances. We could never allow an ungrateful attitude to exist. Ungratefulness can lead people to make desperate and unwise choices in an attempt to satisfy the...
We are smelling the stench of rotted morals. We see it happening in our streets, families, and in our government when evil is allowed to remain unchallenged, degrading the human experience. Sometimes, when a leader attempts to instill a sense of morality, their...
We frequently hear the phrase, "Your words will produce a violent response!" That threatening comment is not a reason for a believer to remain silent when the truth is not being honored. Charlie Kirk was killed because he spoke the truth about life, marriage, and...
When the legal system of any nation is unjust and fails to convict the guilty, anarchy will increase because there is no fear of prosecution when someone commits a crime. The spirit of anarchy will show favoritism to the criminal in our courts, not to the law. As a...
There's a great deal of deranged thinking taking place both in our culture and within certain parts of the Church. There are reasons for this derangement, chief among them is picking and choosing how we interpret the whole of Scripture to align with our opinion. The...
Yesterday, I asked Jan, "How do you feel about our lives?" Her answer was wise. It was a wisdom built on years of following the Lord. She said, "We will follow Him wherever he leads, no matter what He asks of us. He's the one who has always had our next step...
Of late, people are tossing out the names "Hitler" or "Nazi" at some of the leaders in our nation and toward the people with whom they disagree politically. It is a demeaning and ill-informed practice. It's also the end of a mature conversation. Can you imagine living...
Amid the growing national division and turmoil taking place in America, the Church has been planted in each city to reverse a descent into greater expressions of evil. Our presence and witness have the power to turn the spiritual tide and bring hope for a better...
We are living in a time when expressing an opinion can make us a target for an insult. No one will be immune to these assaults. Some insults are expressed by a passive-aggressive personality that may sound legitimate at first, but were created to confront, not to...
Whenever we speak or write something, we must ask ourselves a series of questions; without asking those questions, what we say or write will not come from a deeper place of personal introspection. First and foremost is the question, "How does this apply to me?"...