Travel book writer Rick Steves notes, “You learn a lot about your country by leaving it and looking at it at a distance.” He’s right. You can’t help but see how incredibly rich we are. How ethnocentric we can be. How vain we must seem. We sometimes believe the world revolves around us—until we go[…]
Read MoreBefore beginning class this morning, I asked these Nepalese students—most of whom are pastors—to tell me some of the daily challenges they face. In a Communist country where Hindus and Buddhists make up most of the population (and followers of Jesus make up approximately one percent), it can’t be easy. Here were some of their[…]
Read MoreIn the stifling heat, I set out today to visit a Buddhist temple. Buddhist temples are not hard to find in Kathmandu. They dot the landscape of most high places. Religion is everywhere you look. Hinduism and Buddhism have filled the city with their idols. Up the steps I walk, passing the vendors, the[…]
Read MoreReading Abba's Child for the 4th, maybe 5th time. I am once again awakened to the question; am I living…
Two days ago, I was in the airport terminal of Izmir, Turkey, reflecting with a friend. I have known Sandy since 1969. Our friendship goes back to ministry days in San Diego, but we have hardly seen each other since 1972. I left for seminary training in Portland. Sandy went on to become a Marriage,[…]
Read MoreExcellent read... thank you
Every week, I get the pleasure of dialoguing with future leaders of the church, a.k.a. seminary students. I am confident in them, though I fear for the contemporary church and its waning influence. These students will enter a world that is losing both its mind and its soul. They will step into churches, some of[…]
Read MoreIt is a good thing to ponder. It makes one want to look deeper at the text, and does the…
Last night in class, one of my students asked me how many sermons I have preached over the course of 35 years. A brief calculation suggests approximately 1400 sermons. How many times I have spoken is another matter, given I typically preached 2-5 times per week. That’s a lot of sermonizing—a lot of my life–a[…]
Read MoreYou have given us a clear picture and we MUST act. One wonders, in this battle with the enemy,…
We can ill-afford to have an insulated, self-absorbed, accommodating faith. Not ever, but especially not today. If the church has any hope of changing this world, it must recover its conviction of the Word’s authority (without picking and choosing what we want to agree with). Believers must be as intentional as ever to engage with[…]
Read MoreInteresting how it took you getting into the smaller things of life in these areas to reflect on the much…
I knew it would be an ambitious undertaking, but I and eleven others decided to discover what God is doing in the Middle East. It wasn’t a tour. This isn’t some travelogue. Sure we wanted to see some things—the Pyramids, Galilee at sunrise, the Jordanian desert, and the fortress at Byblos. We wanted to experience[…]
Read More11:00 am this Saturday, another group of future ministry leaders will join in a seminary processional to be inspired, cheered on, prayed over, and sent out. After the pictures, graduates will set aside their gowns and get on with life. Some (hopefully most) will tack their diplomas on a wall and flourish in ministry. There[…]
Read MoreMaybe you have heard of Jordan Peterson. I was not aware of this Canadian psychologist until I read Peggy Noonan’s recent column, “Who’s Afraid of Jordan Peterson?” So now I am reading his 12 Rules for Life (near the top of bestseller lists), and his insights are riveting. I am reading slowly—my mind needs to.[…]
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