This morning I have been listening to seminary lectures on Bible interpretation. I’ve been doing this from the enjoyment of my church office, with a cup of coffee and a space heater warming up the room. During a break, I saw that 21 Egyptian Christians were just beheaded by Islamic terrorists. They died for being…
There Are No Agnostics
Yesterday I had a conversation with another guy in our church who had the opportunity to begin speaking about spiritual things with a young lady. He asked her what she believes, and she said that she doesn’t think it is possible to really know the truth. He asked her what her view is of life after…
The Earlier, the Purer?
There is a trend among Bible School and Seminary students these days of being enamored with the early Church. Perhaps it is in response to the sense that there is discontinuity between our churches today and the Church in history. Or, in a day and age when doctrinal divides and denominational allegiances reign, maybe the…
Disease, War, Freedom of Religion, and “The Briefing”
A quick scan through the major headlines these days is overwhelming. The Ebola outbreak is spreading faster than efforts to contain it. War is ongoing in the Middle East and is rising in the Ukraine. Freedom of religion in the United States is under attack from seemingly all sides. My tendency is to respond to…
Adopt-a-Street
There are neighborhoods all around us. There are streets filled with houses right across from us, and there are more streets filled with houses right behind our tree line. There are old houses and there are new houses. There are trailers and there are mansions. There are public schoolers and private schoolers and home schoolers.…
History-Shaping Prayers
What’s on your personal prayer list? For most of us, our prayer lists include a string of family members and friends, church members and missionaries, and any known major needs of those people. In addition to these, some people also include the United States President, the persecuted church, and major social issues like abortion, homosexuality,…
Made for Closeness
My birthday was this week, and last Saturday my parents surprised me by showing up at my birthday dinner, all the way from Maryland! We had a great, relaxed time being together during the week. After eating breakfast together this morning, they packed their car and drove away. Candace was already at work, and the…
Is Friendship Fest Biblical? (It Can Be!)
A month from now, on our church property, we will be laying out the Slip’n’Slide, setting up the Water Slide, preparing game stations, prepping relay races, maybe even testing a dunking booth or touring a fire truck (we’ll see!). On Saturday July 5th, we will be treating our neighbors in the Friendship Road community to Friendship…
An Open Letter to Crossroads
Crossroads, On Monday morning, the day after one of your high-school graduations, I opened up facebook and found my newsfeed exploding with new profile pictures. And these new profile pictures weren’t just your everyday “selfies”. They were your profile pictures, and they included “the whole gang”. The contrast between the “selfies” most people identify themselves by and…
Summer Worship Team
“Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!” These words from Psalm 150 are a call to all musicians – singers…