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PAY IT FORWARD
I’ve heard other people talk about it but this morning was the first time I experienced it for myself: Some stranger in line in front of me paid for my Starbucks order. It was an unusual Saturday morning in that Melissa was scheduled to help out with a church program. She planned to stop at Starbucks on her way to get a special treat of caffeine to help her through. When she started running behind schedule, I offered to be the considerate husband who would sit in the drive thru line to get her drink so she could still get…
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SLEEP WIMP
I woke up at 3:30 this morning and couldn’t fall back to sleep. It kind of messed up my whole day. I felt run down and unfocused at every step. And since it messed up my day, it is not surprising that it is messing up my evening. Melissa wants to watch some Netflix but I know I will just fall asleep on the couch. And I need to be up tomorrow by 3:30 again so that I can be awake enough to drop Sarah at her school by 4:30. She has a show choir competition that is several hours…
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TIMING
In Acts 16, Paul, Silas and Timothy are on the move. But not quite sure where they are going! All they know is that they are to preach the gospel. They attempt to enter the Province of Asia. But they are “kept from it” by the Holy Spirit. Then they try to enter Bithynia. But the Holy Spirit “does not allow it”. That night, Paul has a vision of a man from Macedonia standing and begging for help. The next day they head straight to Philippi, the first city they can reach within Macedonia. I must ask you: Isn’t this…
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WORSE THAN BIAS
Online, I usually avoid discussing politics. So fair warning: this post involves politics. But only tangentially. It’s really about the news media in general, left AND right on the political spectrum. I am not talking about simple “bias”. There is something much more insidious – and less defensible – than bias going on these days. At least since my college days, I have been aware of bias in the news media. I first became aware that bias could shape the way a story is reported. And that was worrisome to me. It was possible to sway the audience toward a…
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BOOK CRITIQUES
I am writing a paper on how secular books about habit formation could be usefully incorporated into church teaching regarding spiritual disciplines. As part of my research I looked at many lists of top-rated books on spiritual disciplines. I wanted a sampling of available teaching on the disciplines and needed to see how they approached the subject. I found three that appeared on all the lists and got myself a copy of each to dive in deeper: Sometimes things that should be obvious still surprise me. When I started researching these three online, I found abundant criticisms…
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THE RIGHT TOOL
I am currently attempting a 12 page research paper for my doctorate work. And it was kicking my butt. Mostly it inspired endless procrastination. (I’ve had two months to focus on it.) Then I came across a writing program called Scrivener, downloaded it for $40, and spent two hours looking through its tutorials. Scrivener’s genius is in breaking long pieces of writing down into smaller parts and keeping it all organized and together. And now I am moving forward on the paper. It makes me wonder … How often in life have I assumed I could go no further because…
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SAINT MACHAR’S
In front of our house, the daffodils are starting to pop up from the cold, winter ground. It won’t be long now! This afternoon I plan to take a moment to lay on a couch and let the daffodils of St. Machar’s “flash upon my inward eye”. It’s the best way to overcome February pensiveness! ____________________________ * The current structure of St. Machar’s dates back to the 1300s, but Machar himself began worship services on this site in 580. A bit of gruesome historical trivia: When William Wallace was drawn and quartered in 1305, one of his left quarters was…
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VENGEFULNESS
We should include an important footnote with yesterday’s description of what Paul and Barnabas experienced in Lystra. You remember that while the Lystrans ultimately stoned Paul to near death, they had first worshiped him. Or at least attempted to. Paul and Barnabas told these people to “turn from these worthless things” – meaning their devotion to Zeus – and that could not have gone over well. Calling out someone’s religious beliefs as false? That’s a tough sell. But this wasn’t the only hurdle in the disciples’ path. In fact, even after Paul and Barnabas finish speaking Truth, they still “had…
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LYSTRA
This is not one of the more famous locations in the book of Acts, but it deserves to be: Lystra. The story set in Lystra begins with Paul healing a man whose feet were crippled from birth. To be more precise, it is Jesus who heals the man through Paul. This turns out to be an important distinction, at least to Paul and Barnabas. The crowd sees only that “the gods have come down to us in human form!” (Acts 14:11) They decide that Barnabas is Zeus and Paul must be Hermes. Why? Because Paul is the chief speaker, like…
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AVOIDING CONTROVERSY
When Melissa and I finally resigned from that mission organization and came to terms with the reality of not returning to Haiti, we started to look for work here in Indiana. Not knowing exactly what God’s plan was for our future, I entertained the idea of pastoring a local church. A position came open within commuting distance of Columbus – a church we were already familiar with and liked. A church that had financially supported our work in Haiti. I applied. During the interview the committee asked why we had left Haiti. I did my best to explain – in…