For the past two years I have spent most every Thursday between 10:30 a.m. and noon with a group of pastors to pray for our community of Antioch. It’s an odd group, composed of quite few Baptists, some independent church pastors, an Ethiopian missionary, a worker with international students, and me. As I look around […]
What’s your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com You scored as Evangelical Holiness/WesleyanYou are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God’s grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables […]
Click here to read Matthew 2: 13-23 I don’t want to preach this sermon. You see, I find myself this morning still in the throes of Christmas. Yesterday, when I logged on my computer, I looked as always to my Google Talk chat window to see who was online. I saw that my friend Jordon […]
Wrestling With the Christmas Blues… A Christmas message from the pastor…. Christmas time is a wonderful time isn’t it? The lights, the colors, and the time with family all add up to great feelings of warmth in our hearts, as we connect with the meaning of our God given lives . . . right? Aren’t […]
The real reason for Mr. Huckabee’s ascendance may be that his message is simply more uplifting — and, in the ethical rather than theological sense, more Christian — than that of rivals whose main calling cards of fear, torture and nativism have become more strident with every debate. The fresh-faced politics of joy may be […]
Text: Colossians 1: 9–19 Have you ever broken something precious and known the sinking feeling that comes when you see it in pieces on the floor? That was the feeling I had as I ran into the kitchen after hearing the shattering of glass on the floor. Someone had been trying to get something off […]
Not to be too depressing on Thanksgiving, but Sam and the Cool People Care folks offer a good word for today.
2nd Corinthians 8: 1–15 I could see it rising from the Kansas prairie long through the windshield of my rental car long before I got there. It stood as a beacon against a vivid blue sky, surrounded by the shells of new buildings that would soon become posh shops and trendy restaurants. I had come […]
Many people think that forgiveness is about the person or people who have done a great wrong. Can THEY be forgiven? But the great secret of forgiveness is that it is about the person or people who have been wronged. Forgiveness is the path to freedom from being dominated by the harm that has been […]
One of my podcast addictions is the show Word For Word, produced and distributed by American Public Radio. This program takes the best speeches and presentations made around the country and rebroadcasts them. Word For Word is how I have been able to recently listen to Sam Harris, Ted Sorenson, and many, many others. Today […]
In the past couple of days, I received several e-mails that go something like this: Warning to the parents, grandparents, kids and grandkids! The Golden Compass, a movie coming out 7 December 2007 is a children’s movie based on a series of books with anti-religious themes written by Phillip Pullman, a Proud athiest. The […]
I woke up yesterday morning, and quickly found my heart heavy. It was just like any other Saturday morning. The girls were watching Saturday morning cartoons. Kay was in the kitchen, scrambling some eggs for the kids, and I stumbled out, hair askew, body creaking, and made my way over to the computer to check […]
Doctrines are not alien formulations which we must adhere to but the documentation of the most profound human experiences which, transcending time and place, are handed over from generation to generation as a light in our darkness. —From Reaching Out by Henri J. M. Nouwen In several previous posts I have offered critique on the […]
only wonder understands