Like the pine trees lining the winding road I got a name, I got a name… Like the fool I am and I’ll always be I’ve got a dream, I’ve got a dream… Moving me down the highway, rolling me down the highway Moving ahead so life won’t pass me by —Jim Croce, I Got a Name Sheryl Crow says, … Read More
The Father Heart of God
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. … Read More
Evidence for Jesus’ Resurrection
“So the other disciples told him [“Doubting Thomas], ‘We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.’” John 20:25, ESV A healthy skepticism is good but Thomas … Read More
Finding Joy in Simple Things
I’ve never had a guest blogger, however, this week I’m breaking with that tradition and sharing a piece posthumously as a tribute to the life and example of my Aunt “Rusty,” Eleanor Loper, one of my dad’s older sisters. She passed away earlier this year on January 18th and was one of the kindest and most positive people I’ve known. … Read More
A Critique of Gothardism, Part 4 of 5
As an exercise in discernment, this series critiques the teaching associated with the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), Advanced Training Institute International (ATI), and specifically their founder, Bill Gothard. His teaching includes a myriad of distortions and this post addresses examples under the fourth of six main areas (listed at the end of Part 1): A misuse of “the … Read More
Getting Our Apologetic Against Pornography Right
For twenty-five years, many of us have laughed through or in spite of Joey and Chandler’s regular consumption of porn on Friends. And today, former Baywatch babe and Playmate, Pamela Anderson, is a “strange” outlier because, now that she’s gotten rich and famous off of being objectified—yet, seeming to have learned the hard way, she speaks out about pornography as “corrosive” … Read More
Why I’m a Christian
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe the … Read More
Why I Believe in a Loving Creator
Let the godly sing for joy to the LORD;it is fitting for the pure to praise him…The LORD merely spoke,and the heavens were created.He breathed the word,and all the stars were born.He assigned the sea its boundariesand locked the oceans in vast reservoirs.Let the whole world fear the LORD,and let everyone stand in awe of him.For when he spoke, the world … Read More
Together for Change in 2019
As you prepare for the new year, look through the list below and choose three favorites. Consider asking someone close to you to do the same. Then share your top three with each other, answering the following questions and concluding your time in prayer: Why are these your favorites? What implications do they have for 2019? How will you do … Read More
The God Who is With Us and Beside Us
For many of us, the meaning of Jesus’ name Emmanuel, God with us, is one of our favorite parts of the Christmas story. That the incarnate Son of the God, the Maker of the Universe, would come to earth in flesh to dwell (John 1:14)—literally “tabernacle”—with us both blows our minds and melts our hearts. In reading Ian Provan’s Seriously … Read More