My God is Yahweh. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The God of Israel.  The Almighty Creator.  The King of king David.  The Father of Jesus Christ.  The Author of redemption and my faith. And I sin.  I have grown in my confidence that the church has overused the word idolatry.  Not every sin…

God has given some good things to you.  I just know that He has.  He has been so kind and merciful to me.  And I can certainly dive deep into the atonement, His gift of His Son to save me, His adoption of me into His family. The big things deserve big thanks.  But what…

Why does a Luna moth exist?  My daughter saw one sitting outside the drive-thru window at the coffee shop where she works in town.  They are huge and beautiful and very short-lived.  They have no digestive system and eat nothing during their 7-10 days of adult life.  They are large, beautiful, and green mating machines.…

We can talk about all kinds of issues facing our culture. The news outlets will spew forth a steady stream of political problems, military conflicts, fallen leaders, murderous rampages, weather-related disasters, and dumb things our leadership says! But my heart is heavy this morning with one thing that has been in front of me through…

I was suddenly made aware from multiple directions that there is a new solution to children’s discipleship that is going to fix the next generation and be sure to keep them in the faith.  While other kids are growing up to question their faith and leave the church in their 20s, your kids or grandkids…

I am preaching on a passage in the gospel of Luke this week, where it is recorded that Jesus cast a demon out of a man in the synagogue in Capernaum.  It doesn’t happen in the Upside-Down.  It doesn’t happen in the ‘spiritual realm’.  It happens on planet Earth.  In Galilee, in the town of…

I listen to a handful of podcasts most weeks, and two of them highlighted the problems of ai (you may note that this is not in all caps as usual, keep reading to see why) within the past 24 hours.  Both of them spoke to the same issue, and this got me thinking. In one…

Every time another church is attacked I go deep into what ‘ifs’. As a pastor of a flock, I am called to care for my flock.  But the metaphor gets cloudy.  Am I supposed to wrestle with bears and lions?  Am I called in any sense to physically preserve my sheep and protect them from…

She forgave him!?  I saw it live on TV.  I heard it through speakers piped into my living room.  Others were in the room who could verify what she had just said.  I’ve gone back and watched the clip a dozen times.  And it still amazes me.  It still shocks me.  Forgiveness will never be…

I used the word ‘worldview’ in my title instead of ideology, because worldview strikes me as more comprehensive. And that is the point. I do not imagine that there are many people (though I tremble at the thought that there are some) who set out to embrace death, who hope to some day plunge off…

The whole nation seemed to be united behind one thing for the past week or so . . . Two people in a spotlight at a Coldplay concert. Now I have a confession . . . I like Coldplay.

I am preaching my way through 2 Timothy and I encountered this verse this week in my deeper dive for my sermon.
2 Timothy 3:9

One of the largest task of any leader is to clarify the answer to the question “why!?” I have been listening to the book “Extreme Ownership” by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. Leif participated in many of the missions to regain the Iraqi city of Ramadi.