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“We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jew or Greek, or slave or free, and we all were given one Spirit to drink.” (1 Corinthians 12:13 Common English Bible) When I was in grade school we’d play a game called, “Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego?” It was a game designed to teach us world geography and increase our appreciation for the world’s many peoples and cultures. Carmen San Diego could travel anywhere and do anything and we had to use our knowledge of her and the...
I have been talking through the attributes of God, the descriptions of Who God is and how God relates to humanity. I want to share about the attribute of God’s mercy. To show mercy is to not give what would normally be deserved. Occasionally those in prison are pardoned and allowed to be released without having served their entire sentence. They are shown mercy, to receive something other than what was originally deserved. Not only does God act with mercy towards humanity, His mercy is part o...
Last February, the Oroville Dam in California had a problem with its spillway that eventually threatened the integrity of the dam and led to the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents downstream. Although a major catastrophe was avoided, the event served as a warning to the problem of aging infrastructure in our country. I believe the event also can provide an analogy to problems that can arise in our lives if we allow sin a foothold. The problem with the Oroville spillway started as just a small area of the concrete broke loose as...
What’s that you say? When it comes time for you to go you said, “I’m not going!” Well friend, guess what? We’re all going, whether we want to or not. How we accept the inevitable depends a lot on our understanding about this life and the possibility of something hereafter. If you think, “This is it, nothing more,” I can feel your despair. We have so much information available to us that tells us just the opposite. We should approach this event as it is intended. Our history, scriptures, personal faith and our experiences witness to our soul t...
Here I’m speaking not of the call to salvation, the “greatest call” outlined in Romans 10:9, “That is you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” For that is the call of Christianity itself. No, here I speak of the great call to all who have already accepted the call to Christianity. Jesus mentions it when asked to tell what was “The greatest commandment.” He mentioned it in verse 38 of Matthew 22. He first says in verse 37, “Love the Lord your God with all yo...
Richard Hext was born into an impoverished family with crippled hands and feet. After four years and 10 surgeries, he was eventually able to stand upright but unfortunately was never able to use his hands. However, a nurse had taught him to use his mouth to write and from this he developed a love for art as well. After attending an academy for seven years, he was able to fulfill his dream of becoming a painter. Such was his skill and love for his work that he gained a notable place in the world of English art, with some of his paintings...
My wife Emily and I watched the 5k race back in 2008 as a part of the Fargo Marathon festivities. SEVEN THOUSAND people crammed the course – seemingly on top of one another – to run the 3.1-mile race. The first place finisher clocked a time of 16 minutes and 30 seconds. The last place finisher hadn’t approached even a half mile by the time the winner crossed the tape. And while I was impressed by the person who took first place – I was blown away by those who finished near #7,000. As the pack really thinned, the fans dissipated. The walkers...
How can we as members of a family, a church, a community and a country help improve the world around us? Everywhere we look we see poverty, loneliness, fear, sadness, sleaze and filth, broken homes and hopelessness, abused children and parents who are stressed to the limit as they struggle to care for their families. In our schools and with our children we have rebellion and bullying and disrespect and the attitude that I want and deserve everything now! What just happened with our last election where the world around us exploded into hatred...
My wife and I love our walks in Montana. We get out every day if possible, even if that means snowshoes. It has become as much a spiritual exercise as it is physical. It is becoming, more and more, a prayer walk. I wonder what it would be like to ‘walk with’ God. It’s a recurring theme in the Bible, all the way back to Genesis 3:8. Despite the disconnect between us and God, we read that Enoch, Noah and Abraham all did just that, all walked with God. Just yesterday, I walked with my wife. She’s not God but she’s godly, wise and soulful....
To quote the inspired words of Forrest Gump is to call to mind the simple fact that often we are the cause of our own troubles. “Our own worst enemy,” as my father used to say. How this happens is often a process. A process of thought or, to be more specific, wrong thought. Several verses of Scripture can point us to the genesis of that wrong thinking. The book of Judges recalls a time when, “Each man did what was right in his own eyes,” yet Proverbs 21:2 reminds us, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord ponders the heart...
The commonly recognized symbol for the medical and health professions is a staff with two snakes entwined about it, known as the “Caduceus.” This actually derives from modern misunderstandings that confused this symbol of the mythical Greek god Hermes with the original “Rod of Asclepius”, of the Greek god Asclepius, who was worshiped in his form of a serpent entwined around a staff. Devotees associated him with divine healing and medicine, establishing healing temples wherein patients would sleep on the floor of the sanctuary and numbers...
It was 24 years ago March 11 that a beautiful young lady flew to Anchorage, Alaska, to meet me to embark on the wonderful life-long journey together that we call marriage. I believe my wife Missy is the best gift God has given to me outside of life itself and the gift of eternal life through the forgiveness of sins offered by His Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. I thank God every day for the gift of a godly wife who I can call my best friend, companion, lover and mother of my kids! And I thank Missy for being willing to love me in spite of my...
Last time (Jan. 19, 2017) I invited you to join me on a quest, a quest to find “church” for those who are skeptical, cynical, or suspicious of churches, of religious organizations in a broad sense - what I am referring to as the “Groucho Marx” folks. Picking up where we left off then, the working definition of “church” that shapes this quest is “a group of people who come together, who form relationships and connections with those gathered, who share a common hope and desire for a deep life.” Let me also say – I am curious about a church th...
We live in an era when it is easier and easier to get what we need, when we want it. Yet, we are still limited by availability. There can be occasions when we have to wait to see the dentist or arrive at a store before closing time. Often there are people we need to meet with who may not be available for a long time. As I continue to write about the attributes of God, what is certain is that God is never closed for business. An attribute of God describes the Lord’s character, His nature, and w...
During New Testament times the day was divided into 12 hours beginning at six o’clock in the morning. The sixth hour would be noon, the eleventh hour would be five o’clock in the evening, although we think of the “eleventh hour” as before midnight. Beginning with six o’clock in the evening, the night was divided into four “watches” each three hours long. The second watch was nine until midnight, the third watch midnight to three and the fourth watch from three in the morning until six, about sunrise. When the storm came upon the disciples who...
Winter . . . one of my top four seasons! In our neck of the woods, winter pleasures us each year with the awesome beauty of fresh white snow, a striking allusion to the covering that God offers over our sin-stained lives. As the delightful days of autumn linger, I know winter is just around the corner, right on schedule as God’s plan for the rotation of the Seasons marches on. With winter, God brings new delight to earth as the snows begin to fall gracefully and peacefully, covering our surroundings. And, after the snows, when the sunlight b...
We live in a time in America, though certainly not the only time in America, where much of the country seems to be polarized between differing political viewpoints. And this polarization seems to show up most after an election, with some of those who did not get their way in the election acting out in very poor manners. Living here in Seeley Lake, I would like to think that maybe we get along with each other in spite of differing ideologies, and certainly I am thankful to not be aware of any protesting or rioting going on in our area....
“You gave me these emotions, but didn’t tell me how to use them....What of my soul? Do I have one?...Who are these people of which I am comprised? Good people...bad people? Did you know that I could play this (flute)? Does this knowledge reside in these hands...in this mind...in this heart? Who am I?” Usually when we hear the name “Frankenstein”, we think of a B movie and creature. Eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel spoke of far deeper things, intimated in the original subtitle: “or, The Modern Prometheus.” The 1994 cinema adaptati...
Imagine you’re facing an assassin, an assassin who has been hired to kill you. Now imagine handing him the weapon to kill you with. I know this is difficult to imagine and yet that is exactly what pride is like. Satan, the great deceiver, comes to “destroy both body and soul” (Matthew 10:28). We give him the tool of destruction when we willfully become prideful. Scripture records the following words, “I hate pride and arrogance” (Proverbs 8:13), “Pride goeth before the fall” (Proverbs 16:18) and “those who walk in pride he is able to humble....
It could have been any day, I do not remember exactly, but the conversation was not new in its content. I was visiting with a person about the value of participating in the life of a church. Various reasons were given for not doing so: lightning might strike, the walls might fall in, too many hypocrites (“I know what they’re like when they’re not at church.”), etc. I quoted Jesus’ response to the Pharisees and legal experts who complained about his eating and drinking with sinners and tax collectors: “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but s...
We are on the other side of another Christmas season. Many are working on thank-you notes to extend appreciation for gifts received. For most, the desire to give a gift to another person is an expression of love and kindness. We desire to show goodness and thoughtfulness to others. An attribute of God is His Goodness, which is wrapped up in God’s character. God’s goodness is His understanding of what is in our best interest and God’s loving desire to provide what is good for us. God’s underst...
Have you ever had “one of those days?” You know the kind. No matter what you set out to do it seems that everything goes wrong. I know I have. Sometimes, it seems they come in bunches – like bananas! My Dad was a great example to me during those times. For him, the glass was always at least half full, rather than half empty. In fact, for him it seemed the glass was always completely full. As a child of the 1960’s and 70’s however, I was not so sure. I bought in to the rhetoric of the time and always seemed to be having one of those days. Seeing...
For nearly fifteen years, I have worked with kids in a faith-based setting. I was a bible camp counselor for two summers. I volunteered 2-5 hours a week all throughout college at my church to help kids. I worked at my home-church for eight years as a youth director. I then worked on a local college campus for 18 months with young people. And in that time, I learned that kids are totally dumb. Note – kids are not stupid. Stupid shows a lack of intelligence. Being dumb (at least my definition) is more about being ignorant…naïve…and gullib...
It is a mere few days from one of the greatest celebrations of the year. This will be our 24th year celebrating the Christmas season in Seeley Lake. And though a few times we have spent Christmas with family elsewhere, we still have been in Seeley Lake during the Christmas season, and continue to enjoy many of the things our small town has to offer. From the friendly faces and voices at every business we go to, to the wonderful opportunity to hunt for a Christmas tree out in the forest, to the guaranteed white covering on the ground, to the...
1Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you… 4-6 I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith e...
