Pastor's Blog (Page 18)

In last Sunday’s message, we explored 1 John 1:9 as part of the pathway to Lasting Victory Over Besetting Sin. Clear, precise confession of sin is absolutely fundamental to lasting victory. Anything less allows the besetting sin to keep us in its chokehold. How so? Sometimes we treat sin gently. We say, “I fudged on the report,” instead of “I lied.” Or we excuse it by…

For the last week my phone has been on the fritz and in the repair shop. What I thought would be a minor day or two’s inconvenience has turned into a week-long productivity debacle. I can’t believe how much of what I do is tied to that thing: scheduling, note-taking, exercise, weather, banking… I wished for it just now so I could use a thesaurus in writing this…

The. slide. is. accelerating. Wasn’t it just a few years ago these shameful deeds were done under cover of darkness? How quickly we progressed through the stages: the Unthinkable became Tolerable, then Acceptable, then Legal, and now it’s Celebrated.  Our national calendar now dedicates an entire month to take pride in our shame. As if it ranks up there with something…

Out of the blue one day my email quit working. I couldn’t send or receive. “Password incorrect.” Really? I hadn’t changed anything. I checked, double-checked, and triple-checked that the password was correct. What gives? Apparently the email program had been “updated” and even though my password was correct, the program now required an additional password. Somehow I…

Dear Dad, I’ll never forget your stories. You made distant places like the hot, dusty cornfields of Arkansas and the mosquito-infested, steaming jungles of Mexico seem amazing, even glamorous. My heart pounded with yours as you stole into town at top speed on patched bike tires to secretly mail…

Let’s return to the scene when Jesus came to the disciples walking on the water. To refresh your memory, the disciples were rowing across the Lake of Galilee to their destination on the other side, a distance of maybe 6 or 7 miles. Normally they could have covered this distance in 2 or 3 hours. But strong winds had blown up and turned against them, and ten or twelve…