Do you ever just want to complain? Go on a rant?

Yes, I know God is good all the time, but I’m not always happy with what He’s allowing me to go through. So, I complain. Maybe you feel the same way sometimes. Well, we’re not alone.Continue reading→

In the days when Queen Victoria ruled England, she made a habit of visiting the humble homes of her subjects. She enjoyed the brief Christian fellowship and company of her people. On one occasion, she visited an elderly woman in a nearby village. The woman was recognized in her community for being a very godly person who reflected the love of Jesus wherever she went. She always talked about Jesus and never neglected an opportunity to share the love of Christ with others.Continue reading→

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
(1 Peter 4:10)

Just wanted to take a moment to reflect and give thanks for all the people who are serving and sacrificing for our new church home.Continue reading→

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:15-16, ESV)

I was thinking the other day about our move to the new building. What will be needed before we move?  What changes will happen? How everything will need to be finely coordinated.  The new ministry opportunities we will now have. It’s exciting and a tad overwhelming to think of all the different responsibilities that will come with it.Continue reading→

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

(Isaiah 55:8-9)

When I look at my Christmas tree, I can say a few truths about it. It has lights and a tree topper. There are no ornaments on it except a few swirls of ribbon. It is perfectly simple and beautiful to me. Others may look at it and think it is undone. Others may think I am lazy and did not want to climb through the dust in the garage to find the boxes that contain the ornaments. Others may judge that it is not a “real” Christmas tree because it happens to be artificial. Others may be happy that I didn’t kill a live tree.Continue reading→

Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10, ESV)

There it is again: Be still. I grew up in a household in which being still was equated with laziness, and laziness was a very very bad thing. Sleeping in, sitting down, watching TV, reading a book, were all things that were only to be enjoyed if absolutely every task you were assigned was completed and completed accurately.Continue reading→

I have an old pocket watch I keep in my bedside table. It doesn’t work anymore, and the once shiny gold has long since rubbed off, so it’s kind of a dingy and scratched up silver/gray. It gradually gets buried under the other odds and ends that wind up in that drawer.Continue reading→

When I was a little kid, there were times when I was convinced some kind of evil creature was lurking in the shadows of my darkened bedroom. My heart pounding with fear, I would manage to gather the courage to turn on the light and to my great relief the evil creature was really just my jacket hanging over the chair. Some of the things we fear are nothing more than our over-active imagination.Continue reading→

As a worship leader, I often talk to people about worship. I like to poll people about what their favorite worship songs are or what song the Lord has been laying on their heart lately. Most of the time people can only remember little bits of the songs they like and many can’t even remember what the song says. They only know they really like it. Sometimes I hear, “I don’t like that worship song,” or “Worship songs all sound the same anymore,” or “I’m just annoyed by that song and can’t worship.”Continue reading→

The other day while I was mountain biking in the foothills, I came across a plant that was beautifully green and healthy, stretched across the path, taking over areas that it had clearly not had access to before. With the drought, virtually every other plant in the area had dried up and died.

What was it about this one plant that kept it alive, and actually thriving when every other plant around it was dying? Continue reading→