BLOG––Encouraged by Faith

Have you ever heard the saying, “Wherever you are, BE?" Maybe the saying isn’t grammatically correct BUT, the saying has resonated with me from the first time I heard it.   It’s meant to get our attention and help us to realize that wherever we are placed at a moment...

Stephen the Martyr is preaching while he’s dying. His words ignite hate in the hearers. We have the text in Acts 7. The angry sweating mob throw their coats to an approving Saul. He condones this act of silencing Stephen the traitor. But Stephen continues speaking and I doubt the crowd is...

Let me as a grandparent thank you all for the wonderful work you are doing with our grandkids.  I have high hopes for their future and present faith. I recognize that some of that hope is hinged upon your faithful performance of your duties. Those hopes and dreams are not being...

Answering God’s call to peace At the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, the 1960 presidential debates play in a continuous loop. In one of the debates, the moderator asks the presidential candidates to explain why Americans should cast a vote in their favor. Modern viewers...

Jerry destroyed Oval. He ripped his seams wide open and pulled out all his stuffing. Jerry is our miniature labradoodle, and Oval is our eight-year-old’s favorite stuffed animal. He got him when he was about three years old on a trip to IKEA. He named him in the parking lot on the way to...

  As believers we proclaim Christ was born into this world for the sake of all peoples, all nations, all those like us, who are troubled and sinful and weary. However, if Christ came for the sake of the world, why was he born illegitimately to a small-town carpenter and his teenage wife?...

In August, I was in Alaska for my niece’s wedding. Several of the family had just spent a miserably cold, wet day in Seward touring the Kenai Fjords National Park in search of whales, seals, sea birds and other marine wildlife, without any luck. The sea was extremely rough because of an...

Mother is leaving us. She told me she is going home soon, to her new heavenly home where she has a reservation. This confident assurance has characterized her whole life and it has been her constant message to everyone who knows her. People have been coming to her for encouragement for decades...

  In November of 1981 I travelled through time both back two thousand years and forward an indeterminate number. That is to say, I burst out of the constraints of time. My father lowered me into a 5' x 10' tub of water and I entered into the death, burial and resurrection of Christ...

I’ve been reflecting lately about being fearful. Looking at even the last three to four weeks in our state and country, there would seem to be many things to fear.  From mass shootings, to hate crimes and natural disasters.    Then there are the everyday fears...