Blog
Awareness is very different from suspicion. Suspicion is a leash attached to our thoughts and emotions leading us to places where fear is in control. Awareness is an awakened state of preparedness. It wisely helps us see into the depths of what is happening in the...
When an individual, family, or nation appears surrounded by evil, the Lord's faithfulness for what He has promised to fulfill will establish a greater perimeter of hope. That greater perimeter of God’s presence stands outside human history. It holds all evil plans...
For the last few days, I’ve experienced emotions like the ones I felt on the morning of 9/11. When that attack took place, my mind went back to my days on SWAT duty. I found myself preparing emotionally and tactically for what might follow the attack. The same thing...
Some couples don’t like to talk about death with their spouse, but Jan and I are comfortable with such a conversation. Unless we both enter eternity together – one of us will remain behind. That is a reality of life. In 1999, we moved to Southern Oregon. Our first...
Many years ago, I heard John Wimber say to our Foursquare Convention at Angelus Temple, "Just go back and do what's in the Book." That single sentence changed everything for Jan and me. We returned to our church in Montana and the Spirit fell - not because...
In October of 2014, I will complete a transition out of the Senior Pastor role at Living Waters Church in Medford, Oregon. The man God is raising up to fill that role is Ryan Rhoden. Ryan is a good and godly man with a vision for the future. We have...
In the late 1990’s, Jan and I lived in Berlin, Germany. Berlin was our base of operation because of the abundance of travel options the city provided. We worked and traveled in the nations that comprised the old East European Communist Bloc. Our primary...
Each morning I walk into our kitchen and do three things. I feed the dog; I start the coffee maker and I take my vitamins while drinking a large glass of water. This morning, I noticed that I first splashed a bit of water into my glass and then poured it...
As a boy, I listened any time an older person told a story. I loved hearing their stories. It was through these stories that I learned about life and came to appreciate the power of seeing something for the first time. My maternal grandmother was born in 1896....
When I became a father, God blessed me with a daughter and a son. We have prayed for each of our children since the day they were born. One of the great joys of being a father was to do special things with each of my children that would be specific to them...
I grew up in one of those wonderful little hometowns we nostalgically read about today that once dotted the landscape of 1950s America. My hometown was Campbell, California. The grade school I attended in Campbell was called San Tomas Elementary. I attended that...
In high school, I took an English class from a teacher named, Mr. Bobbitt. Mr. Bobbitt seemed “old” to me – he must have been about 50 when I was one of his students. In class, Mr. Bobbitt would never let us use the word, “good”, to describe anything. He...
My father was not a strict man. Not much bothered him. Maybe it was because he was 42 years old when I was born. I was the first of two boys born to my parents. In some ways, I was raised by parents who were the age of young grandparents. Over...
Growing up in the home of a self-employed contractor helped me see the seasonal nature of the construction business. Without fail, each approaching winter would put dad’s business on hold until the warm spring days returned along with new construction contracts....
As a boy, I enjoyed getting into my father’s Chevy pickup truck and driving into town. During these trips I would watch my father and learn about life. Most of these trips would involve a lunch where we sat at a counter on stools laughing and talking. On one of...