Blog
On a walk last week, I saw a group of turkeys sitting on a fence. It got me thinking about how we can become so afraid of offending someone that we shy away from expressing the truth, especially about hot-button social issues. To a passerby who wants to see a...
As summer winds down, I’m thinking of the summer of 1973. It was a special time. On Mother’s Day, I proposed to Jan, and we set the date of our marriage three months later. That summer was carefree and filled with expectations of a new life and a new future...
Where I live in southern Oregon, our valley is filled with smoke from massive forest fires. For days we have endured deteriorating air quality now defined as hazardous. Because the sun has been reduced to an apocalyptic orange glow, it caused me to ponder the words of...
This morning, as I prepared a message on the section of scripture in John 8 describing the woman caught in adultery, I was struck by something. As the Pharisees brought the woman and put her in front of Jesus they wanted to stone her to death for her sin. ...
I remember being a young pastor and trying to counsel couples who were going through a difficult time in their marriage. I tried to give them tasks to do to help them deepen their commitment to each other. After a few years, I realized this wasn’t working. ...
How can we blame a culture for their anger and distrust of religious institutions if somewhere along the way we began to think we could displace the merciful voice of God and begin telling people how to live? Paul said, “It isn’t my responsibility to judge...
In the hills above my home grows a rare flower from the Lily family of plants called the Gentner’s Fritillaria. This plant was first identified in 1942 in a young woman’s bouquet of flowers. It only lives on earth in this part of Southern Oregon. It is...
He runs to meet her. Her arms hold His advance at a distance, safely away. She is not yet ready to embrace again, not trusting still. Sorrow of promises broken push hard against His advance of love. Back again He comes wanting to hold her, to feel the warmth of this...
Many times we can look like someone who has come to a negotiating session with God. We bring to the meeting our list of demands and place them on the table in an attempt to negotiate a new contract for His performance. We want Jesus Christ to be "the same...
I have lived long enough to hear the various conspiracy theories that have risen within each generation. I have noticed there is an industry of fear that surrounds these theories. This industry exists within elements of the media and in some sections of the Church....
Developing history is not as clear as recorded history. Looking back in time always provides a much clearer picture than looking forward from within a moment of time that is still developing one step at a time. The people who were involved in the unfolding events of...
What makes our belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ so powerful is the resolution it provides for the largest questions we have about life and death. All we believe is crafted around Jesus rising from the dead into new life. No other belief system offers...
The doorway of hope is many times disguised with despair. On the first Easter, in the darkness of the early morning, it was the voice of Jesus, not His unrecognizable image that gave Mary her first sense of hope. Today, as you stand before a personal doorway of...
As your faith matures it becomes less cluttered with the demands, opinions and speculation of those whose circles of fellowship are birthed, fueled and maintained by increasing levels of discord. You will know that you have come to this place of freedom when you find...
This morning, as I sat in the darkness of a still breaking dawn, a goose flew overhead and honked. I wondered how the goose could navigate through the darkness and then I remembered something from my past. It reminded me of my days as a pilot when I would make an...