War is a a huge concept found in a tiny word. If words carried the gravity of their meaning, the word for the concept of ‘war’ ought to be something like 17 syllables. But this is English so “infinitesimal” means really small and “big” means large. I woke up thinking about war this morning, because…
[11] so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs. I just finished a podcast series on the Satanic Panic of the 80’s and 90’s. I enjoyed listening in, because it was a trip down memory lane. The decades of the 80’s and 90’s were formative…
I sit here and write this blog in between conversations. So far this morning I have had three conversations with people who attend ReCAST church. (After I wrote the previous sentence I had a great conversation with a young couple who just came through to grab a coffee and stopped to chat). I am…
I have recently been made aware of a particular woman with a large following who has made a list of unapproved theologians and pastors and authors. Of course, she is the common thread. Her list includes Daily Grace Co. Her list includes John Piper. Her list includes Tim Keller. Her list includes the Bible Project.…
I often tell people in my role as a pastor that we need to keep reading the Bible in order to keep exercising our faith. I think many of us have a tendency to think of faith as a static thing. Either I have it, or I don’t. But faith, as evidence of things not…
While I was rereading ‘The Pastor’ by Eugene Peterson last week, I was struck again by the nature of my full time role as a pastor. I have a strange job. I am employed in the service of a people in order to shine as a consistent spotlight on the invisible God. He is there.…
Several years ago, I was more in touch with contemporary culture. I would blog nearly every week on Thursdays and I used my blog as an opportunity to exegete our culture, much like I use my sermons on Sunday to exegete a passage of the Bible. But something shifted, and I am not sure if…
This past year I read/listened to the most books I’ve ever recorded in a single year. Being granted an eight week sabbatical AND listening to a lot of fiction while biking helped boost the number of books. I have found it helpful in the past to categorize books according to my level of recommendation. But…
God has created a world in which we experience time as past, present, and future. I cannot conceive of any other type of world, but I’m sure God can. For some reason, God seems interested in the progress of His creation. We learn from the past. We live in the present. And we anticipate the…
I don’t know how long you’ve been kicking around on this planet, but I’ve been here for over half a century. And that doesn’t make me any kind of expert. I could live here for centuries and still find surprises that would challenge my perceptions. But one thing that doesn’t take very long at all…
The shift has been subtle. Like the proverbial frog getting cooked in the pot as the heat is turned up in slow increments, it feels like we got here over years. In the 90’s Bill Clinton gave the entire country a framework of discussion surrounding the killing of babies in their mother’s womb. He declared…
Everything we see going on around us is merely the tip of the iceberg. You never really know another person. That waitress that brings you your coffee and your eggs and bacon is a person with a deep history, and deep internal thoughts and struggles. You see her smile. She is more than what you…
