Where I grew up fishing, northern pike and walleye pike were the kings of the fish to catch. The lake our family fished most was home to small mouth bass, sunfish, crappies, perch, bullheads, and of course northern pike. Northerns are known as voracious feeders. They have been known to feed on frogs, mice, young…
Once I was asked by a Senior Pastor who I was serving with on staff a question that I had not thought about before. That question was, “out of all of the attributes of Jesus Christ, which is the greatest?” This took me a bit to think about. I was wracking my brain trying to…
There are many things in day-to-day life that are common occurrences, and then there are those times when the rare and the extraordinary happen. In Alaska, we think nothing when a raven swoops down and steals a morsel of food (i.e., garbage) from the parking lot of the local grocery store. We barely flinch when…
Have you ever been tempted to or actually uttered the words, “Really Lord?” After all, if God is really Sovereign, and He is, should He not be responsible for what happens in the world as a whole and in our lives specifically? Yes God is in control of everything and He does bless as well…
I can think of several key experiences that have humbled me in my life. Obviously, the first year of marriage comes to mind. If that isn’t a humbling experience for every husband on the planet, then there’s something very wrong with you. That first year is the life-equivalent of racing top-fuel dragsters. You basically go…
Over the past two Sundays, I have been challenging our church on whether they come to our church services as worshippers or consumers. Either coming to church as a giver or taker. Coming to offer themselves to God or taking the posture of a shopper with a take it or leave it attitude. A consumer…
For those following my blogs over the past three weeks, you will remember I have been working on a series addressing the ongoing conflicts in our nation. Like many Christians, I have been stunned and saddened to watch America so rapidly descend before our very eyes. In watching what seems a bad dream unfold I…
This past Sunday I began preaching, The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ sermon that spans Matthew 5-7. This sermon can be summarized with two words: pride crushing. What appears as an immediate contradiction is that Jesus begins this sermon by repeating the word, “Blessed” nine consecutive times. 1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the…
Have you ever resonated with the vultures in the animated movie Jungle Book? The scene opens with one vulture asking, “What are we going to do?” To which a quippy vulture response comes, “What do you want to do?” This brings the answer, “I don’t know, what do you want to do?” This goes back…
