Taking a Stand Against Racism is a Meaningless Gesture

You need to listen to that speech.  Aug 28, 1963.  You’ve heard parts of it. You could likely quote some of it, but you need to hear the whole thing.  Take 17 min, click here tonight and listen to it. It is a homiletical masterpiece, a speech that defined a movement.  It expresses so poetically …

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The Gospel of Stranger Things

I discovered a Netflix show called Stranger Things  earlier this summer.  Everybody else probably watched it when it dropped last fall. Either that, or you have no plans to watch it at all, so I am probably safe talking about it, but if you haven’t caught it and are planning to watch it, here are …

Two Kinds of Racism

What does a Canadian white male do with what is happening in Ferguson, MO? The violence and the bitter distrust is heart breaking and I don't know what I can do about it. I would like to think that I could hold this at arms length and shake my head condescendingly since this kind of …

Why I Won't Repost KONY 2012 Videos

I don't “like” Jesus on my facebook page and I don't repost clever religious quips (unless I wrote them 🙂 and here's why: Author Neil Postman warned that media (especially social media) trains us to be more and more likely to talk about issues and less and less likely to do anything about them. The …

The Teacher and the Student

Last night I came to our mid-week youth program thinking I was teaching a class and instead I learned a great deal.  We are studying the character and nature of God and we were learning about four of God's character traits. God is Just God is Unchanging God is Gracious God is Unfathomable With the …

21st Century Hymns

One of the benefits of setting up the PowerPoint for worship on Sunday is you often have to type the words to the songs into the computer. I have often found a profound sermon hidden in the words of a hymn we will sing (often more profound than the sermon I was going to preach). …

A Biblical View of What Hell Isn't

Continuing from yesterday... Before I share what I think is a Biblical understanding of Hell (what it is and what it isn't ) I would like to share some resources I found helpful in thinking about Hell (in addition to the Bible): Scot McKnight's One Life, in particular chapter 12, gives a good, responsible treatment …

Modern Day Proverbs on Good and Evil

I taught my last Proverbs class today and we looked at an interesting contrast between modern day proverbs and the proverbs in the Bible. I found a website explaining modern proverbs (a stitch in time saves nine, a penny saved is a penny earned) and created a Wordle of all the proverbs listed. A Wordle …

Why You Need Tragedy In Your Life

You learn things through suffering that you won't learn; you can't learn any other way. Consider the story of Joseph in Genesis (Gen 37-50). Why was it necessary for there to be so much suffering in Joseph's life? His father Jacob poisoned his own family by preferring his sons Joseph and Benjamin over his other …

A 'Bad' Man

I've got to change the channel on my alarm clock/radio. I've had two early starts this week and used the alarm to get up. I hate the 'Red-Alert!' buzzer on my alarm clock; waking up to that always puts me in a bad mood, so I set it to radio. I must have been listening …