Years ago a long-time church leader encouraged me to “externalize the opinion.” By that he meant that I should seek someone from outside of our congregation to weigh in on how we were doing. For instance, instead of asking our members how friendly we were, I should have someone from outside of the congregation come, visit and report back on […]
SHHHH… Let me encourage you to turn off everything and spend some time in peace and quiet: no TV, no iPad, no Pandora, no Netflix. I remember studying spiritual disciplines with some friends. We talked about the usual topics: Bible reading, fasting, prayer, tithing and the like. Then we talked about silence. Have you noticed how little of it there […]
WHAT AILS OUR LAND? We hear more and more people calling for justice. Certainly, I am all for justice. So is God! After all that’s why he sent Jesus. But what if we focused on grace instead? What if YOU focused on grace instead? Jesus did so above all things. AND THIS This wouldn’t hurt either. Concentrate on WE instead […]
WHAT’S IN A NAME? Do you call yourself a Christian? A Lutheran? A Baptist? A Catholic? What if we called ourselves “Christ Followers?” What difference would that make in how we thought of ourselves? What difference would that make in how others thought of us? Is a rose by any other name still a rose? Or could it be something […]
WHAT A DEPRESSING BOOK A while back I read a book recommended by Oprah Winfrey entitled The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It is a gripping story about a father and son and their quest to keep alive following some kind of world-wide catastrophe (nuclear devastation, pandemic?). The thing that made it so depressing was that there was no hope. No […]
LIFELONG LEARNING We often hear about the importance of being a lifelong learner. As young people graduate they are reminded in commencement messages that their learning has not come to an end, but to a new beginning. What about you? What are you learning? Do you have a good book going? Do you have an avocation that keeps you stimulated? […]
THINK ON THIS: HOPE Have you read Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus lately? In the first chapter he encouraged the early followers of Jesus to really have the eyes of their hearts opened to a number of things. One of them was the HOPE of the Christians calling. Think on the hope that you have in Jesus. Christian […]
HELP YOU BELIEVE? The recent multiple shootings across our land sure help you believe… in evil, in wickedness, in profound brokenness. Death. Sudden. Brutal. Tragic. Senseless. We see it way to often. And we name what is behind it: evil. Such awareness of evil helps you believe that there must be something more to existence than the brief, unpredictable and […]
DRIFTING? DISTRACTED? How is your walk with Jesus going? Are you as close to him as you were a year ago? Or are you drifting? Are you distracted? Time and time again the Old Testament people drifted. What was supposed to be a close and personal relationship with a living and loving God became less and less important. They drifted. Time and time again the […]
SPORTS AS WORSHIP The NCAA basketball tournament is back. When it fell a year ago, I opined that the gods of this world were falling. Politics were in uproar, scientists were scratching their heads, colleges were sending kids home, financial circumstances were in chaos, entertainment venues were closed. With the return of sports… and the American worship of it… we in […]