“What is our world coming to?” A good friend of mine asked that over the weekend as we talked about recent events. Maybe you’ve asked that yourself lately. It’s a good question. We’ll get back to it in a minute. First let’s talk about what our world is and has been, before we consider what it’s coming to. It’s easy to see tough stories on the news from other towns, other states, or other countries, and then go back to the regular routine of our lives. It is a fortunate privilege to have a regular routine when people elsewhere face daily challenges. So we sometimes hear the news, feel bad, maybe say a prayer, and hope things work out for them. Then we go back to our lives and don’t think about it much. But……. [click on View Post above to continue reading]

The beginning of Ecclesiastes 3 is a beautiful poetic text that speaks to the full range of the human experience—the good and bad, life and death, laughing and crying. It reminds us that life does not stay the same season forever—every season changes. This passage speaks to those of us who are struggling with—or breaking under the weight of—anxiety right now. Breathe deeply. This too shall pass…… [Click View Post above to keep reading]

Since Germany has done a good job of controlling the spread of the virus and testing its population, their major league soccer came back this weekend. With that as the only option, starting now I’m a lifelong die-hard fan of teams in Munich and Dortmund. There were no fans in attendance, of course, but gosh it was good to watch. As a matter of fact, South Korea has done such an excellent job in their response to the virus that their soccer league started back two weeks ago. As I have followed all the news over the past 2-3 months of the virus’s spread, it’s interesting to see how different places responded to the crisis, and from a spiritual perspective, how people have responded to temptation. Here’s what I mean….. [click on View Post above to keep reading]

In the early 2nd century there was a booklet written as an instruction guide for Christian churches, which were still figuring out how to be church in that early period, when the books of the New Testament were still on the “New Releases” shelf. The booklet was called The Didache: Teachings of the Twelve Apostles. It had helpful suggestions for things like worship, church administration, and daily living. Here are the instructions for how to perform baptisms……. [click View Post to continue reading]