Blog
In the life of faith, there will be times when we must run ahead of what has become familiar, predictable, and expected of us. This moving ahead is not always a physical move. It could be initiated by a deeper revelation of how we see God’s Kingdom or a change in our...
There's a word we use to describe something that is too horrible to consider. We call it unthinkable. It’s unthinkable because if it happened to our family, our church, or our nation we would experience something so painful, life as we know it would radically change...
As our world enters the narrow and dangerous waters of social unrest, as major world powers move closer to WWIII, and when institutions we once considered stable are now in jeopardy, it is important to reestablish our understanding that God will forever be faithful to...
(This is part one in a five-part article about the “H.O.P.² E.” acronym taken from the book, “They Told Me Their Stories,” where the environment of faith was described that attracted God's healing power to the Azusa Street revival. This article deals the first letter...
As I write this article I am inside a warm cabin in Central Oregon. It is raining outside and a fire is crackling in the fireplace. Even though it is early June, the fire feels good. Like most cabins used by lots of people throughout the year, the accumulative effect...
Early one morning an experienced pilot took off on a flight from a small Montana airport with two friends on board to fly across the Rocky Mountains. This ill-fated flight disappeared from the radar screen about ten minutes after departure. The remains of the crash...
Recently, I was driving home from my office to pack for a leader's conference my wife and I planned to attend in California. On the commute home my route takes me through some beautiful farm land and rolling hills. On one long section of road I noticed ahead of me the...
“I will lead you back into old battlefields where you once suffered loss. I will lead you into these places to do a work of restoration and return to you what the enemy has taken. The fear of reentry will flee before us as you and I walk together into these places. My...
Most of us have written something in the margin of a book or a Bible. As we read along we have thoughts and observations that we want to remember. We connect those thoughts and observations with what we are reading by making notes in the margins of the text. There is...
When I was 8 years old I was a Cub Scout. I still have my little blue Cub Scout hat and yellow bandana. Being a Cub Scout was a big deal for me because it was the first time I was able to wear a uniform. Kids with uniforms feel important and big. My mom and dad were...
"For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power." I Corinthians 4:20 It is easy for those of us in the Western Church to be enamored with our technology, our education and our programs. These things are not wrong - they simply can be done without God. The...
When I was a young cop I was taught about crime scene investigation in the Police Academy. We learned about blood evidence. Later, after years of working the streets, I became a detective. When a murder would take place I would arrive at the scene and begin to collect...
When I was a kid growing up in California I lived in the Silicon Valley before there was much silicon. Our street had only six houses on it, all on one side of the road, and in front of our home lay the great adventure land of Mr. Dardanelli's orchard. Behind our back...
Recently, I watched one of those cable shows about modern technology. They described a new breed of missiles. These missiles have the ability to loiter. Up to this point I always thought “loitering” was something that was prohibited. In the small town where I grew up...
I like getting to the bottom-line of things. If I know the bottom-line in a given situation I know where I stand and I know what I am required to do even when life is confusing and seems directionless. Maybe it was all the years I spent as a cop responding to...