I’ve seen this post multiple times, and can’t express how profoundly these words offend me. The purpose, often put up by people whom I know love Jesus, attempt to justify bad and offensive language by leaders and ourselves, and this can be from both political persuasions. However, this Unconventional rant is NOT political—but spiritual. The question: do Churchill’s words represent or oppose how Jesus and the Bible view words?
Read MoreKind to the Bone--The Spirit's Fruit of Kindness
Remember the old rock song, “Bad to the Bone,” about a guy who bragged his badness went to the core of his being? Let me tell you about another. A real one. At 20, he committed armed robbery and escaped. Two months later he was arrested for fraud, sentenced to three to five years. Upon release at 23, he was arrested for the earlier robbery and sent to Leavenworth. Upon getting out, he joined the army and soon got discharged for having syphilis at 26. At 27 he quickly married a young country girl, got her pregnant and more quickly left, only to marry another young girl two days before his son was born. With no divorce. Once more going to prison. He spent the rest of his life as a con man, dying early at 52 from his syphilis. This dude was bad to the bone. In his wake, he left only loss and deceit and pain. He was my…
Read MoreChanging Lives
Conversations about long-gone events can change our perceptions of them. Last night, a conversation with our campus pastor J.D. about doing church, about how people decide to follow Jesus, about how we are uniquely gifted and experienced, about how we communicate effectively, forced me to reformulate how I came back to Christ in February 1971. That decision came from three events within a two week period…
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Do Words Matter?
I’ve seen this post multiple times, and can’t express how profoundly these words impact me. From Sir Winston Churchill as it claims? Likely not, but that’s immaterial. The purpose, often put up by people whom I know love Jesus, attempt to justify bad and offensive language by leaders and ourselves, and this can be from both political persuasions. However, this Unconventional rant is NOT political—but essentially spiritual. The question: do these words represent or oppose how Jesus and the Bible view words? Good words…
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Living with Bears
Stepan, orphaned when his mother died in the forest, was adopted by the Panteleenko family in Russia, and 25 years later still lives with them. The kicker—Stepan is a bear. A grizzly bear—one of the most fearsome predators on our planet. He picnics with them, cuddles on the couch watching TV, and even plays catch. What a fine metaphor for dealing with the predators in our lives! And we all have them. Maybe not on the level of grizzlies, but we face antagonism. In traffic. On Facebook. In stores. With families and friends. But how do we respond? Let’s…
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image from Travel by Desine
Somebody's Watching
Just about everyone recognizes the iconic picture “Big Brother is Watching You,” from Orwell’s classic 1984. And while many fear how forms of technology have made this real, let’s keep this human. We’re not as private as we think. Back in college daze, several of us left our homes in Long Beach and headed for Independence Creek, about 300 miles north. In the interest of full disclosure, I had abandoned a relationship with God in my searching, although I still attended church. Mostly social reasons, frankly. So we pulled into a hidden spot...
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