Pro-life and Pro-Abortion: Can we talk?
This has been a very divisive issue since long before the Roe-Wade decision. And while I believe we should all be talking about it and struggling with it, the fact is, virtually no one is talking to anyone they don’t already agree with (I’m not counting talking—or yelling or typing AT each other!). So, I’m probably going to get into trouble with a lot of people. Not the best move for the director of a financially struggling ministry! There are many reasons for Christians, Christian…
Read MoreAssumptions Can Be Spiritually Dangerous
We’ve probably all been burnt by making assumptions-about health, our cars, our houses, our jobs, our relationships. When we assume everything is all good without checking on it, we can get into serious trouble. 20 years, two knees and two hips ago I was a runner. I loved being in the forests of the Northwest so much I took up running on the trails. At one point I was averaging 50 miles a week, and frequently ran the distance of a marathon each Saturday just…
Read MoreWhat is Grace?
My first hospital visit in my first full-time ministry was to a man in his 70s who had been a Christian literally twice as long as I had been alive. He had been transferred to a hospital in our city from a small town clinic 100 miles away with a heart condition that required open-heart surgery. When I introduced myself before his surgery we talked briefly and then I asked if I could pray with him. Out of nowhere, he broke into tears, weeping and…
Read MoreWhy Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?
As I was walking yesterday, a neighbor called to me and asked if he could ask me a question. This happens a lot, and I always begin with “I will give you an answer, though the answer may be ‘I don’t know’”! Sometimes these questions are unusual and unique to what is happening in the questioner’s life. More often, it is a question I have heard before. One of the questions I hear the most often is “Why”? Why did God allow that? Why do…
Read MoreWe Need To Get Our Heads In The Game!
We Need To Get Our Head In The Game I am a Cornhusker fan. A loyal, lifelong, Cornhusker fan. For those of you who follow college football, you know that is a hard thing to say these days. Twice in my life, I remember the Nebraska Cornhuskers playing at a level that would rival the NFL (as evidenced by the fact that half the senior class went into the NFL each year). In between the dynasty, years were years of struggle. And today, struggle is…
Read MoreDiscipleship and Racism–Where Does Jesus Stand?
In the past few months, I have been called both a fighter for justice and a racist (that part not to my face), both based not on what I believe, what I say or what I do, but on whether I am willing to support a specific movement. So, as I write this, let me make clear, I am not particularly interested in any movement or label. I will stand with anyone who stands with what our King has taught and commanded–to the extent that…
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