Perfectly Imperfect!

Many Bible passages trouble me. They push my limits; they invade my comfort zone; they require following Jesus as more commitment than I sometimes want to give. The worst, for me, came with Jesus’ statement, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” We tend to define perfect as flawless or exact. Dang, that doesn’t sound like me at all. Humorously, the older I get the better I get at spotting my flaws. And we can’t quibble—the perfect used for the Father is the same grammatically as our target.

In the original language, the word includes being…

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Who Is This Jesus?

Most love Christmas, as we celebrate Jesus’ birth. But his life transcends being a babe in a crib, and for followers of Jesus, or those intrigued with him, knowing his nature will drive how we follow. John’s story of Jesus’ life doesn’t detail the events of his birth, but summarizes them, “The Word (Jesus) became flesh and…

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Paying Attention Pays Off

Our local Total Wine store occasionally does educational and tasting events, and not long ago we celebrated our Happy Hour at their “Napa and More” event, where we learned a lot about wine in California, and particularly the Napa/Sonoma area. Our host Joseph said California has 600,000 acres in vineyards, and if we were a nation, we’d rank #4 in wine production. Each wine region has an AVA name; California has over half of our nation’s. These nuggets came as he gave small tastings of various Napa area wineries to go with the food they furnished. Then Joseph added a twist—a question that yielded several gifts to the first person who answered correctly. He even made it multiple choice! Already interested, I began to pay more attention in hopes of another trivia question. Then the next quiz came:…

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The Man I Used to Be

After working much too hard and long recently, hopping in a long and hot shower to sluice off the sweat and ease aching muscles, and then having to lie down on our bed for over half an hour to recover, I said to my wife, in grief, “I’m not the man I used to be.” Then I realized the concept has multiple dimensions, and these words came to me…

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BBQ and Divine Appointments

About a month ago, after worship at our church and lunch at Lucy’s Mexican Café, Sheila and I headed to a local winery and relaxed at a patio table. A few moments later a woman, mid 20s, sat down at the next table with a plate of BBQ piled high on a bun. Even after eating, my mouth began to water at the aroma and sight. “Excuse me, ma’am, but you’re torturing me. That smells and looks so good!”

She replied with a smile, “Would you like a taste?”

I…

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Divine Tension

I never realized tuning a guitar had such complicated principles behind it! Of course, my tonal ability ranks with a paramecium, or likely lower, but this site, one that described how the right tension is set for a guitar string, based on the type of guitar, the style of playing, the diameter of the string, the amplitude of vibration and more, amazed me with the technical details. To summarize it, though, the correct and appropriate tension on a string allows beautiful music to be played by an excellent guitarist. But proper tuning requires…

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The Glory of Guilt

Pain from a broken leg keeps us from doing more damage to the injury. So we hobble to ER, wait for hours, and then get it casted, which enables healing. We don’t all break our legs, but we do sin. Perhaps, just wondering, but does guilt serve a similar role spiritually for those times? Can it pain that leads to spiritual healing?…

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Coconut Shrimp or Oatmeal?

 I’ve led a Life Group for about three years for our church, North Coast Church in Temecula, and last spring we had a fine addition, George and Polly White. George is an astrophysicist/mathematician/author/thinker/professor, mentored by one of my favorite writers, Robert Jastrow, and Polly, born and raised in Singapore, is an energetic natural hostess and baker and cook. You need to know that to fully get the rest of the story. Just after the Christmas celebrations, another member, Linda Vaubel, posted on our group text that she had two leftover and untouched cakes for anyone who would like them.

That gave Polly an inspiration, so…

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