Blog
On this day, February 10, 1994, my pastor, and one of the greatest mentors in my life, Roy Hicks, Jr, died in an airplane crash not far from where Jan and I now live. The truths Roy represented and his integrity with Scripture still resonate in my heart. Thirty years...
There are times when we speak the truth that what we say will be offensive because it violates long-held religious traditions. If our goal is to use truth to be offensive for offensive’s sake, the truth we speak will not have its intended purpose. It will make us just...
When I read Scripture, I look for repeats. Repetition is something used to drive home a point. Jesus repeated Himself as He taught parables. One set of repetitions had to do with the function of angels at the end of the world. “The Son of Man will send his angels,...
It feels like you are surrounded by a restricting presence. What you perceive as a negative form of restraint is actually being misinterpreted. This encompassing presence is spiritual scaffolding put in place by God. He is trying to rebuild and retrofit your life like...
In real life, paper targets don’t shoot back and martial arts mannequins don’t fight back. This is true in spiritual matters. The only place we will ever understand the gritty realities of a life of faith is in the trenches of actual spiritual combat. Make sure to...
Some of the most profound theologians are not theologians by definition. They are men and women who work outside the walls of churches and seminaries in ordinary jobs. These unrecognized theologians walk daily in an intimate relationship with God and in that intimacy...
I never allowed the rookie cops I trained to run toward danger. Until we knew what was actually taking place, I wanted them to move forward with caution under cover and concealment taking the time to assess what was happening. Some of these so-called emergencies...
Unexpected greetings from the past will arrive to build your faith and reconnect you to old relationships you had long forgotten. God has a purpose in these reconnections and that purpose will be revealed in the coming season of your life. A few minutes ago, I reached...
One of the things that will come and visit my life from time-to-time are the memories of my youth. The young Garris will come and talk with the older me. Some of these experiences are a blend of the bitter and the sweet. One such visit took place this morning when I...
The power of God’s presence is underestimated. The presence of God alone has the power to challenge and dismantle entrenched darkness. This is illustrated in Scripture regarding the false god Dagon. Dagon was the god of fertility worshiped by the Philistines, a people...
As a young pastor, I supplemented our family income by working as a pilot. Most of my flight time was instructing new students, but there were times when I would have a charter flight. On one such charter, I was flying back to our home base in Kalispell, Montana solo...
This morning the following blessing appeared in my email in-box from my wife, Jan. It is a blessing she is writing for her third book of blessings. Jan inserted my name as a personal encouragement to me. The original will have the words, “your spirit”. There is...
I was awakened in the middle of the night hearing the 1964 blues song written by Tommy Tucker titled, Hi-Heel Sneakers. The opening lyrics are, “Put on your red dress, baby, cause we goin’ out tonight.” As the song played on, instead of the words, “Put on your...
In a time of great personal crisis or in the moment of approaching death, it is not our opinion about a particular strain of theology or a narrow worldview that people will reach for to find hope. In those moments people are reaching for the hand of God. Before these...
There have been a few times when I listened to people share their concept of God that I come away from those conversations seeing an image of a god who is so damaged that I want to hand the person a bottle of anti-depressant pills to help medicate their stressed out...