I encountered the following while reading my Bible this morning. I have read through the Bible in a year using many various programs, but this year I am reading through the ESV from Genesis to Revelation in about 3-4 chapters per day. Having read this before, it must not have struck me in the same…
I’m not going to tell you what to do, but get your kids signed up for summer camp! I may be a little biased regarding the whole summer camp gig since I worked four Summers from 93-96 at Camp Barakel in northern Michigan and even met my wife there in 1993. I was not privileged…
It is hard to believe that I have now lived in Mattawan for 7 years. This community has changed a lot since my family moved here to start a new church. In the past few years Sandy the “junk yard horse” departed the world. A huge open field in town has been converted to a…
3 Humble Political Assertions Before the Apocalypse
May 5, 2016
My Facebook page is blown up with politics. And so I can only assume that everyone wants to know what everybody else thinks. So I thought I would share it here to avoid having everyone ask me what I think one on one. Consider this blog a preemptive discussion to serve all of those…
A few weeks ago, my wife and I packed up the van, installed the children and set off for what many consider to be the promised land: Florida and Disney. The trip down was fairly uneventful, we enjoyed our time at Disney waiting in lines, and all that stuff that most people seem to…
Last week I had the privilege of joining together with about 9,999 other pastors and church leaders for a conference in Louisville, KY known as Together 4 the Gospel. It is an interdenominational conference focused on the good news of Jesus Christ. The one unifying factor that brings all of these pastors from Presbyterian,…
As I read through 2 Kings 13-14 this morning I was struck by a statement regarding Amaziah who was one of a long line of Kings over Israel. Scripture says, “3 And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, yet not like David his father. He did in all things as…
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Today I am not only wearing some green but even have some shamrocks on my shirt. The ironic thing, is that I got dressed and headed off to the hospital to pray for someone pre-surgery before I even knew it was St. Patty’s Day. How lucky is that!? But this…
I just had a spat with my best friend. Something about triple booking this evening between a band trip meeting, a women’s bible study, and another opportunity I was looking forward to. I didn’t do a great job alleviating the tension, she jumped to some conclusions, but we texted our way into the clearing, and…
As I was reading through some obscure parts of the Old Testament about the assigning of cities of refuge, God impressed upon my heart His great grace in recognizing the messiness of life in a fallen world. The concept of the city of refuge was God making a provision in the event that someone…
ReCAST Church has been talking about building a building since we started to outgrow our previous facility over fours years ago. I have written blogs sporadically, we purchased 12 acres on McGillen Ave on the eastern edge of the village of Mattawan, and we opened up an expansion fund. I decided early on that…
Nobody ever refers to the children of an engineer as EKs. Or the children of a Doctor as DKs. But I have often heard children of Pastor’s called PKs. And I have the privilege of raising up three of them. My church has been a blessing to me on this front and I would…
