A glance over the headlines calls it COVID-19. Colloquially it is called Coronavirus. And it seems to be spreading. I have looked up the words pandemic and epidemic and neither word is entirely accurate yet. And further from reality are the words ‘plague’ and ‘pestilence’. I cannot imagine the latter word being employed by anyone…
Any conversation about Bible translation has the potential to bring up a lot of emotions. People who grew up in the church have likely become accustomed to a particular translation and they develop loyalties. Further clouding the issue is the way we naturally associate a favorite translation with people along the way. “Grandma loved that…
I grew up in a world of concrete good and bad. Wrong and right. Everything to my young developing mind was black and white. When I came to understand Christ and was saved through faith in His sacrifice, I went through a phase of systematically removing the bad and replacing it with the “good”. Out…
How in the world is it possible that my next sermon in the book of Romans arrives right on the week of the public hearings for the impeachment of a sitting president? I can only explain it as one of those things that I see as the hand of God. Some people believe in coincidence.…
Man, oh man, did John MacArthur irresponsibly back his way into a hornets nest! He apparently told Beth Moore (an evangelical author and bible study leader) to, “go home!” when asked to give the first thing that came to his head when her name was mentioned. First of all, let me just start by tackling…
10 years ago today I posted on Facebook “Don is calling tomorrow a pivotal day in his personal history.” I did not know then, just how true that statement would be. But I did NOT know just how misguidedly narrow that statement would prove to be. That first meeting of ReCAST Church has proven to…
I am currently auditing a seminary class that is covering the way that the church should interface with a post-Christian culture. It has been helpful to consider the role that the church should play, in a culture that is increasingly marginalizing the church as a primary influence. We live in a very divided culture right…
I was born and raised in Michigan. The seasons no longer surprise me. It snows in the winter and gets cold. It gets hot in the summer. The leaves turn and fall in the Autumn. And the flowers bloom in the Spring rains. Each transition from one season to another brings anticipation to my heart.…
Monday February 25, 2019 will go down as a day of ghastly and reprehensible actions by the senate of the United States of America. It makes precious little difference if you are a Democrat or Republican. On this day, Senate Bill 311 (aka: The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act) was voted down in the senate…
What’s Wrong With Sin? (or I’m Not an Angry Drunk)
February 21, 2019
I believe that we are an increasingly pragamatic culture. That means that we believe that the value of something is only according to how well it works to produce a desired outcome. This comes out in business models that seek to get results by whatever means work. We value productivity. We value efficiency. And…
I feel like God works on me in specific seasons and cycles. Last year, I would’ve called the the year of prayer. My prayer life increased and I have made a more concerted effort to be mindful of God throughout the day as well as spending some more concerted effort at a prayer time…
Can a wall be immoral? Not exactly, because walls have no will. They merely sit there, stoic and lonely, giving in to the ravages of time and entropy. Poor walls. But I would like to just quickly weigh in on the hyped up rhetoric that is currently swirling around in our culture that may have…