Training to become a pilot (in what seems like another lifetime ago) I was quickly taught that you cannot control what is outside the cockpit. You can only prepare on how you could respond. Metaphorically it has proven to be an outstanding life lesson if you substitute “your heart” for “cockpit.”...
Many years ago, an older pastor, Dick Kaufmann, spent time with me, helping me grasp Grace. Counterintuitive does not even begin to capture my experience. Many of our natural instincts are put totally out of sorts by the LORD’s ways, especially our motivations for performance and earning. ...
What is the earliest motivation you can recall in your life? When can you remember being really motivated (or deeply frustrated if you had failed) toward a goal or an outcome?...
In our first year as a church plant, we went for training at a sister church plant that was several years ahead of us in its ministry....
After being assigned to teach the book of Romans to illiterate monks in his monastery, Martin discovered the Gospel of Grace by faith alone. What reverberated from this work of God in his heart has literally transformed all of Western history and much of the known world....
In what seems like another lifetime, I trained to be a private pilot. I loved every chance to be in a cockpit....
Whether it is an unpleasant anniversary of a Capital riot, or a virus that just won’t go away, or profound uncertainty overall, how is your new year starting?...
In school, I was never a fan of having to do book reports. The reading I never minded, but the effort to summarize what I read was always an enormous struggle. Now I’ve grown appreciative of a helpful summary – which is all I want to do for you today....
If you’re anything like me, then all too often, I need to be reminded that God is in the business of answering our prayers....
Almost everyone is now aware of the recent surge in COVID infections, courtesy of the Delta variant. As Trinity’s demographic is younger than many churches, last year we saw very few COVID infections relative to other Lakeland congregations....
Given the rising concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, I thought it would be helpful to write a short note to communicate how we intend to respond and also to offer some encouragement....
Keep ReadingRecently, Tish Warren wrote an Op-Ed for the New York Times, Want to Get Into the Christmas Spirit? Face the Darkness.She wanted to address how, as Christians, we celebrate Jesus' birth as the light that has come into darkness, andas John's Gospel says, 'the darkness could not overcome it.'She wrote: "Advent bids us first to pause and to look, with complete honesty, at th...
Keep ReadingWhat is the most un-talkable subject you can think of? It’s not sex, because people talk (at least with me) about their sex lives and thoughts all the time. And conversations ...
Keep ReadingAfter the Louisiana Purchase had been secured with France, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned Lewis & Clark to explore and map the newly acquired territory....
Keep ReadingRecently a friend commented to me, “It’s hard that you get fired if you don’t talk about Jesus at your job while most people at worship could get fired if they talk about Jesus at theirs.”...
Keep ReadingI read last week that our United States Congress is seen as one of our most dysfunctional institutions, so it probably doesn’t help that our annual General Assembly (G.A.) functions like the Congress of our denomination. ...
Keep ReadingWhy do we rest? From the beginning, we are given a pattern of the goodness of work, balanced with the goodness of rest. ...
Keep ReadingIn 2001, Julie and I bought our house. A home we could afford that was big enough for our 4 kids also meant that it needed to be fixed up. ...
Keep ReadingWho do you know that is suffering, or what have you endured?...
Keep ReadingI often say that, as a minority, I must know two stories of history....
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