“Don’t just accept whatever comes your way in life. You were born to win; you were born for greatness; you were created to be a champion in life.” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential The next time when you are sick, lonely, verbally abused, addicted, defeated, […]
My friend Mike Rehmet told a story about his wife Gina, who likes plants but apparently doesn’t have the greenest of thumbs. She brought home a new potted plant and set it on the front porch. As they were going out, he noticed the plant there, and said, “so – this is where you’re gonna […]
Matt Sitman, a really brilliant young man and a professor of political theory at the University of Virginia, gave a very interesting and candid talk at the Mockingbird conference this year, and it raised some ideas that I’ve been chewing on quite a bit. All the recordings for the conference are on mockingbird’s site: C’ville Conference […]
The Fall Mockingbird conference is now over, and it was a DOOZY! The subject overall was grace and suffering. As is my wont, I am not going to post a critical review, or a regurgitation of content, but rather my own reflections on the material. All the recordings for the conference are on mockingbird’s site: […]
1 [This is] the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Go down at once to the potter’s house; there I will reveal My words to you.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, working away at the wheel. 4 But the jar that he was making […]
Most churches would hesitate to label themselves as legalistic or law-centered. I want to take a look at a typical ‘seeker-friendly’ helpful life-focused practical sermon meant to help normal average people lead better lives. Let’s suppose our friendly and kind of cool pastor has chosen to do a series on marriage. This is a popular […]
When Jesus was on the cross, suffering and dying, what was He thinking? When He said “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do,” did He really want to forgive them, or was He just saying that for posterity, while inwardly He secretly hated them for putting Him through all of that? On the […]
Here is a song I wrote a number of years ago, performed recently live by Betty and me at House of James in Abbotsford B.C. We are submitting it to a radio station contest so I decided to post it here as well. The basic message is that when things are not going so […]
photo © 2008 Brad Bridgewater | more info (via: Wylio) Everyone has a cross to bear, it is our very dignity, and it is true suffering. It must not be diminished nor taken from us. It reminds me of the priest in The Brothers Karamazov who told the bereaved woman that there would be no […]
“”And He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.” Deuteronomy 8:3, NASB. […]