The Problem of Listening

February 14, 2024
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.  Those are funeral words, graveside words, goodbye words.  I’ve baptized many, marking them with water.  Today, I mark you with ashes.  Nothing in Scripture…

Life without Judgment

August 13, 2023
“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness.”  Well, I don’t know of anybody being persecuted for unrighteousness.  In Calgary, Alberta, there are some three thousand people living on…

Change Is the Blessing

February 12, 2023
Over these several weeks since the end of the Christmas season, we’ve been exploring the first part of what Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth.  That was an exciting…

The Foundation of Faith

February 5, 2023
We must be wise and carefully consider our words.  Let’s remember that no one comes to Christ as Savior through human wisdom or potent rhetoric.  There were those coming out…
You can reinvent yourself, as many times as you like; if David Bowie and Madonna can do it . . .  That’s either foolishness or it’s power.  Remember, power is…

Not Our Power

September 18, 2022
It doesn’t exactly feel as if my demons have submitted yet, but maybe they just want me to think they haven’t.  The truth is they’re done.  They’ve lost.  They aren’t…
On our way to Pentecost, I’m considering Baptist pastor and church consultant Thom Rainer’s insights regarding a decline in evangelism in the church over the past, well, decades.  The Acts…
I shall not be moved.  This psalm doesn’t use those words, yet that’s the sense of this song of praise.  If God is for us—and He is—who can successfully be…

Reverence and Providence

August 15, 2021
I will extol the Lord (111:1).  “Lift up your voice, now lift up your voice!  Great is the Lord!”  Extol.  Praise.  Maybe we don’t spend enough time here praising God,…