Brennan Manning has been one of my favorite authors for a number of years now. A former Catholic priest, Manning graduated years ago with a journalism degree from Northwestern which, in my mind, simply makes him a great writer. Brennan also jokes (but seriously) in one of his books that he is one of...
Read more →Overheard while shopping at Lowe’s. Went home and listened to the full song, and was sold. I understand the lyrics.
“I think our lives are usually viewed in our chosen perspective. You think God has kept something good from you. I think He has protected you from a repeat of your past mistake.”
Well, it’s 7:30 in the evening on Sunday, and the first day of church life at Sagebrush Highland went very well. With over 300 in attendance (200 or so in the initial service) and some full youth classrooms, the new church venue began with a good base of attendees to welcome its arrival. The...
Read more →It’s 9:15 in the morning now, and the Sagebrush Highland team has set up for the first public service today. It was a fast set set up- we started at 6- and the working crew has disbanded for two hours until the service starts at 11:15. There is a lot of excitement about this...
Read more →For whatever reason this morning, I was led to sit down and chew on John 15 for a short bit in my quiet time. This is a chapter in John in which Jesus is addressing his disciples after they have just ate their last Passover meal together, he has watched their feet, and he...
Read more →“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. (C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed).” I have never been good at letting in; I am doubly as poor at letting go. My mom says when I was a toddler, I would cry when the saltine crackers she gave me broke and I couldn’t...
Read more →With the weather in the mid-50’s and the sky misty this morning, there was a good rainfall coming down and clouds covered the sky when the sun rose. I thought, “So this is what it’s like to train in Seattle.” It felt great to run in the rain. A raspberry mocha hit the spot...
Read more →I’ll admit it. In many ways, this has been a great summer in my life. After years of apartment living, I somehow found myself in a home this summer, with interest rates at an all-time low and with buyers free to pick up bargains. I’ve been consistent this summer running, keeping up (mostly) with...
Read more →I am amazed at the grace of God. In the random moments when I can shake myself loose from my preoccupations, preconceptions, and prejudices, and my self falls by the side, He is there. I know this because I can look around in this world, and while planes crash and people contract cancer...
Read more →Struggling over losing a friend, these lyrics leapt from the grief one day. I still love the girl. Fallen I wish I knew what I could say To make you see it’s not that way That everything I’ve ever said before Was just a way of trying to be Someone you would want to...
Read more →For the last two months, I have been going through a book study with a friend. We decided to dive into the study because we had a talk one evening and both realized that we didn’t feel our faith was making an impact in our lives. I had been given a copy of Dan...
Read more →It’s been over three months since my last post, and like that, I am reminded how quickly time flies. There is no slowing it down. Oddly enough, I am aware of this every day (that time is passing), but I fail to make the moments of each day count, and then occasionally I wake...
Read more →“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ~John 4:29 When Jesus meets the woman at the well in Sychar, he shares with her about the water he has to give which springs eternal. She is perplexed by this foreigner. A Jew, he shouldn’t be friendly...
Read more →For some time I have juggled in my head the question of what it takes to be an effective person at self-management. Self-management should enable a person to grow up and become, without tragic interdiction, a whole and contributing person in this world. Self-management is not only a practice of self-monitoring, but it is...
Read more →In reply, Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” Yes, the term “born again” is popularly used to describe evangelicals who emerged out of the 60’s and 70’s as those who pressed for the necessity of a rebirth experience as part...
Read more →“Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” John 2:19 When Jesus visits the Temple courts and sees men selling items and animals for use in sacrifices and offerings, he is incensed and drives everyone out of the courts. When the town constables come and ask him by what authority...
Read more →