A seminary professor once told me the true test of a Lenten discipline is not the extent to which you are able to keep it for 40 days, but the extent to which it becomes a part of your life. For the past several years running has been my Lenten discipline. 200 miles to … [Read more…]
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?” (1 Cor. 6:19). As a young person in the church I was told what that meant. It meant no tattoos, no sex outside of marriage, and ‘just saying no’ to drugs. And to some extent I certainly … [Read more…]
Without trying I can think of two Sunday Schools immediately that remind us the church is not a building. Can you sing the ones I’m thinking of? The first says, “The church is not a building where people go to pray, it’s not made out of sticks and stones, it’s not made out … [Read more…]
I love a good metaphor. It helps me learn. One good analogy can connect dots a million other words fail to communicate. Perhaps that’s why I always try to find an illustration to accompany my sermons. That, or perhaps I seek illustrations out of necessity. Perhaps it is because when it comes to God and … [Read more…]
Perhaps the greatest casualty to the age of information has been our ability to wonder. Wonder struggles to exist in a world with answers at our fingertips and eyes locked in on digital crystal balls. But that’s one of the things I love so much about children—especially at Christmas: Wonder abounds. This year I’ve witnessed … [Read more…]
One thing you may not realize about churches (especially since too many try to marry themselves to one political party or another) is that we are called to avoid publicly endorsing political candidates running for office. While we are free to take stances on issues, aligning with one political party has implications that affect our … [Read more…]
My Christmas Eve message this year was my prayer. It was simply this: that the peace the angels proclaimed to those shepherds on the hillside that first Christmas night, might be know in all the earth. Now, I know that I risk sounding like a 1990s Miss America contestant asking for world peace when I … [Read more…]
I recently caught a short video on the internet called, “Golf Rules for the Rest of Us.” It starts with a particularly bad golf shot (now you can see how it caught my attention). Immediately following the shot a gentleman explains that normally that would cost a stroke, but in the new rules for golf … [Read more…]
It’s been a particularly busy summer for me. Of the ten weeks of summer between the last week of June and August, I’ve spent nearly half of them at camps, youth events, and Vacation Bible School. Throw in a few weddings on the weekends and other special events, and needless to say the summer is … [Read more…]
I moved to SC in the summer of 2006 for seminary for two reasons: A sense of adventure, and The weather. Duh. But what I discovered not long after I got there was that there was a third reason I ended up in SC. God had led me there. God led me to a state full … [Read more…]