Month: August 2018

You’ve Lost That Loving . . . Doing

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I’m preaching a series these days on the letters to the seven churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. Last Sunday, we focused on the church in Ephesus – the church that had forsaken the love they had at first. In the past, I interpreted that to mean that they had fallen out of love with Jesus. That their worship was routine, their prayer life mundane and their ministry motivated by nothing but duty. Now, I think that’s the wrong take. The text doesn’t say that. What it says is that they were doctrinally sound, stubbornly faithful and actively serving. … Read more…

Housebroken Jesus

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Do not fear getting older, for with age comes many advantages. Senior discounts on McDonald’s extremely hot and delicious coffee, for one. The freedom to filter less of what you say or write for another. And perspective. You can look back across the decades and see with greater clarity personal, historic and culturally important events and trends to which you were oblivious in the moment. Take the ‘70’s, for example. Judging from the music we listened to on the radio – no streaming back in those days – Jesus was really popular. Norman Greenbaum’s Spirit in the Sky, the rock … Read more…

Fortune Tellers or Memory Keepers

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Photo by Wyron A on Unsplash Here’s a great question to ask the next time you play a round of Would You Rather: Would you rather know the future or remember the past? Think about that for a moment. We’ll come back to it. We just finished 1 Chronicles in our Bible reading plan. Like several other Old Testament books (and the Gospel of Matthew), it begins with what looks like the contact list on your smart phone – a bunch of names. The first one even starts with an “A” – Adam. A decade ago, I would have said it reads like … Read more…

A New & Difficult Dance

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We’ve been silent for awhile. Thank you for your patience. The following will explain. *** On December 24th, 1950, my wife’s father, Kermit Hammond, drove one of the last trucks onto a U.S. Navy ship at the port of Hungnam, North Korea. Moments later, army and navy explosive teams blew up abandoned allied weapons and supplies to keep them out of the hands of the advancing Chinese Communist forces. He was one of nearly 100,000 allied soldiers – and another 100,000 North Korean refugees – who were a part of what has come to be known as the Korean Dunkirk. … Read more…