Dear Church Family, This Sunday I'm going to tell a parable about a mysterious silver ball that has a string you could pull every time you were in a difficult or uncomfortable position. An accident, difficult time raising children, illness, broken relationships, etc. Pulling the string would enable you to escape the current difficulty [...]
Dear Church Family, We will conclude this series on "Prayer: How They Did It" on Sunday with a message on "The Lord's Prayer". Was this how Jesus prayed or was it Jesus' prescription for us? Or both? The Scripture passage is Matthew 6:9-13. The challenge for us is to listen with attentive ears and open [...]
Dear Church Family, What is your threshold for pain? Whether it's physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, our friends in the Old Testament certainly put up with a lot. And for what? They all seemed to believe it was worth it to suffer for the glory of God. We won't be talking about Shadrach, Meshach [...]
7/17/2024 Dear Church Family, The amazing thing about being 63, a pastor, a father and now grandfather is the regular occurrences of life and death. Babies are born and others leave this earth. I just received news of another high school classmate departing. And I just came from visiting Kevin and Deb, our friends from [...]
7/10/2024 Dear Church Family, Today is an exciting day. My daughter Randi, gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Marianna Elizabeth. She and her husband, Joe, live in Denver. Tracy will be flying up from Scottsdale tomorrow and I'll pick her up at the Denver airport. For the last several months we've been trying to [...]
Dear Church Family, Just like every bottle of medicine or container of a dangerous chemical, they come with a warning, I feel obligated to put a warning label on "CHURCH". Here it is: Warning: Reading God’s Word and praying will reveal your greatest weaknesses, unveil hidden sins, and transform you into the person God intends [...]
Dear Church Family, I have found it so helpful to read the Bible with the lens of "How did they pray?" We often are very rigid and imagine that there's only one way...the Presbyterian way. So, if you ever go to a Catholic, Lutheran or Pentecostal church, you are tempted to wrinkle your nose and [...]