As the 4th of July approaches my mind is drawn to our country and how to best help it.  Like many of you, I am an American by birth and a Christian by grace.  How does a Christian, a citizen of a heavenly, eternal kingdom bless the temporal kingdom or nation where he has earthly citizenship?  I think of a man in my church named Rod.  He is a citizen of Peru by birth and a citizen of the U.S....  Read More

      In 1 Kings 18 is one of my favorite stories in the Hebrew Scriptures.  There years previous, the great prophet Elijah had told evil King Ahab that God was going to cause a drought because of the wickedness of the nation of Israel.  In his anger King Ahab pursued Elijah and killed and persecuted other followers of Yahweh, the God of the Bible.  God told Elijah to come out of hiding and confro...  Read More

     In the book Mending The Soul  , the author Steven R. Tracy  paints a picture of how widespread the problem of child sexual abuse is.  He says that there are approximately 50,000 names on the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC.  Mr. Tracy says that if we were to make a memorial to children in our society who have been sexually abused, it would need to be more than 1,300 times the size of t...  Read More

      We live in a culture where many struggle with commitment.  Marriage rates are down; cohabitation rates are up.  It reminds me of a little girl who liked one of our sons when he was in first grade.  She told him that she was going to marry him.  When he told her no, he was going to marry someone else, she paused and said, “Well, WHEN you get a divorce, then you’ll marry me.”  We see this tend...  Read More

     As Mother’s Day approaches, I paused and thought about what I learned from my mother. Honestly, to answer that question completely would require a book or two, but here are some of my most important lessons.       FOLLOW JESUS.  Mom is a Christian and believes that the purpose of parenthood is to point her children to Jesus Christ.  Obviously, the Christian faith must be embraced by each indi...  Read More

     Almost every person experiences loneliness at one time or another.  Loneliness is the “state of sadness that comes from feeling alone, isolated, or cut off from others” (Loneliness, June Hunt, 11).  The faces of loneliness are varied, from the widow reaching out in the night for a partner that is no longer there to a kid on the playground rejected by his peers.   We even occasionally hear sto...  Read More

       Are you tired of bad news?    Ready for some good news?  So how do we keep going in dark times?  What do we hold on to?  It appears to me there is a growing crisis of hopelessness.  We are going through a time when shallow optimism is not enough.  We need a robust, substantial hope.  In the midst of so much darkness, Jesus offers us that mighty hope, spe...  Read More

      Today we celebrate Easter.  While the cultural celebration often includes hidden eggs, family gatherings, going to church (even for many non-Christians), at the heart of it all is the claim that Jesus Christ predicted his own death, died, and then walked out of his own grave.  That is quite a claim.  A declaration that eventually was believed by billions of people.  But is it true?  This is ...  Read More

RESOLVING PERSONAL CONFLICT     I hate conflict.  I suspect you do too.  While it is inevitable that conflict occasionally enters our lives most of us do not feel like we handle it well.  Yet Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9).  We just welcomed our first grandchild into the world.  Our son thinks she has his eyes.   Children tend to loo...  Read More

FINDING JOY     These are stressful, challenging times.  Our culture seems to be marinating in anxiety and fear.  We stress about COVID; we are afraid of whatever the “other political party” is up to.   Many people are sad, and their joy in life seems to be missing.  How do we find delight in our everyday lives? How can we find joy?     First, accept God’s sovereignty.  God is in charge.  God is i...  Read More

       I will never forget one Mother’s Day Sunday, many years ago, when I was a teenager.  We drove to our church early, as usual, but the day was different.  My dad took time with us in the car to explain that our Senior Pastor, a man I had always looked up to, had cheated on his wife with several women he counseled, and had been fired.  This shocking news would be announced to the congregation ...  Read More

      Imagine being a first century Jew, living under the heavy, oppressive boot of the Roman conquerors  and clinging to the incredible Messianic prophecies.  The Hebrew Scriptures include prophecies of someone coming to help humanity and of someone coming to establish an eternal Davidic kingdom.  Most Jews were looking for a political, military Messiah and not the Suffering Servant predicted in ...  Read More