Every year, Merriam-Webster releases its word of the year. They take into account the usage of words in search engines coupled with correlating current events to select their word. In 2022 the word was ‘gaslighting’ but now in 2023, the word of the year is ‘authentic’. That sounds super close to a core value of…
I think it is impossible to fathom the level of evil that lies dormant in every single human heart. Hitler was made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen . . . Blood, flesh and bone. And yet he stands as a man who converted a whole lot of potential evil into kinetic evil. The human heart…
Preaching through books of the Bible lands me in some strange places. For example, this coming Sunday I will be speaking in 1 Corinthians 7:1-5 about sexual intimacy within marriage. Not only is this passage about a subject that is rarely spoken of in church, but it also is a subject I don’t think many…
How would you save the world if you had limitless power? Would you eradicate all illness? Would you show up in intimidating power? Would you create educational programs? Eradicate poverty? Eradicate hunger? In First Corinthians chapter 1, the apostle Paul addresses the power of God expressed in providing salvation. And it is so radically different…
If you had told me all the treasure, all the blessings, all the growth that would come to me in the summer of 1993, I would not have walked but I would’ve SPRINTED into that summer. It began with a single conversation with a friend, Jeff Howe. We are both from Michigan but the conversation…
I was planning to write a blog this morning regarding the foundational nature of the Image of God in humanity. This is a bedrock doctrine which can be demonstrated by how frequently it has been attacked by evil and the evil one throughout the centuries. I have not spent much time considering the way that…
I have spent some time the past couple of weeks praying for the revival or awakening or really long chapel service at Asbury Seminary in Kentucky. I have prayed for revival off and on over the years, but I have never really given much thought to what it actually IS that I was praying for.…
Last Friday, Linda and I returned from an 11 day Caribbean Cruise. She took me on this cruise as a celebration of a pretty significant milestone as far as birthdays go. (I’ll be 50 next week!) Now that we have two cruises under our belt, I think I can more knowingly say that I DO…
I have learned two things in nearly 20 years of pastoral ministry. 1. I need a personal time in the Bible on a routine basis. I remember when I was younger, I would think that spending time each day in the Bible would make my DAY go better. I will have a better morning, a…
Throwback from 2019! How much glory was obscured in that manger? Who was this baby, that came to us in such strange circumstances? This week I will be preaching from Matthew 17:1-13 to identify just how much Jesus was hiding. I believe that many of us drift off theologically this time of the year. We…
Can we assume that Eve was the first woman? She was certainly the first female. But is the word “woman” merely reserved for a gendered cultural expression that can only be defined based on social constructs? I assume that cultural expressions were quite limited being that just her and Adam existed AND that the fashion…
I wrote a sermon this week on 2 Samuel 6:16-23. In this passage, King David of Israel is bringing the ark of the covenant up into Jerusalem effectively moving the center of Jewish worship to that city for the first time. And he is dancing and leaping and shouting praises to God while dressed down…
