Being Childish

There is a short but familiar story in Luke 18:15-17 where we see Jesus receiving little children. Right before that, Jesus finished his his parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector with the words “those who exalt themselves will be humbled, but whoever humbles themselves will be exalted” (Luke 18:14b) and then almost as …

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 …

What Being a Leaf Fan Has Taught Me About Idol Worship

Seems like everyone's a Leaf hater these days, and I mean HATE. It's like everybody's gotta tell me that the Leafs haven't won the Stanley Cup since 1967. (Thanks, I'll write that down somewhere) or tell me that the Leafs suck (no kidding). I know you're all having some fun, but some folks need to …

A Distracted Mind

This week I've been learning about Spiritual Reflection at a one week intensive course at Lipscomb University. We talked about a study done by two Harvard researchers who wanted to track the connection between where your attention was focused, and how happy you were. So they developed an iPhone app that contacted 2,250 volunteers at …

Why Christmas is a Good Time to Grieve

I won’t be trite or fancy with this topic because there are many people I know and love that have a tough road to walk at Christmas time. What I mean by the title is this: the Christmas story, properly understood, is a great comfort to those who are grieving. Blogger Jon Bloom puts it …

What is a Christian Song?

“This is a Christian song?” We were having a father – son conversation in the car on our way somewhere when I had some words of praise for my son's – right at this particular moment – favourite band. The song is called “Demons” by Imagine Dragons but don't let the title fool you. The …

Is Steve Jobs a Great Guy or Not?

This month's WIRED magazine features an article written by Ben Austen on former Apple CEO Steve Jobs that perfectly illustrates Western culture's completely schizophrenic attitude toward morality. Is Steve Jobs a great guy or not? Well that depends on your point of view. The article brings up a bunch of stories from Job's biography written …

Relearning the Gospel

Martin Luther, in his Lecture on Galatians says,  “The truth of the gospel is the principle article of all Christian doctrine. Most necessary is that we know this article well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually.” Luther was well known for theatrically overstated opinions.  I find this writing style encouraging, …

King Jesus

As a minister my greatest challenge is to convince the people that I love and serve that the biggest problem in their life (whether they will believe it or not) is a theological one. Our biggest challenge in life is not our suffering, or how to cope when things don't go right. Our biggest problem …

Jesus: Head and Foot

Jesus: Head and Foot. What do we do when stories from different parts of the Bible don't agree?