My beginning weight this morning was 187.8. I ended at 187.2. On Day 1 I dropped 2.5 lbs during the day. On Day 2 only .8 lbs. And then today only .6 lbs. That says to me that most of the first day’s weight loss was water. (You don’t lose 2.5 lbs of fat in a day.)  But here’s a curious thing: I have been losing more weight over night than during the day. Almost 2 lbs each night. Again, that can’t be all fat.  I fully anticipate my weight to bounce back up once I end the fast tomorrow…

Some interest on the subject of fasting has been expressed recently in my church so I plan to make it the topic of our first Lenten Bible study – on Ash Wednesday next week.  I have been fasting weekly for over two years and I believe it is a useful practice and spiritually beneficial even though my practice is not much more than skipping breakfast and delaying lunch until 3:00 pm. I have also done some intermittent fasting and I have “given up something for Lent” just about every year for decades now, but I don’t know if I have fasted…

Jesus said a lot of enigmatic things in His day. I have always assumed His goal was at least two-fold: to arouse curiosity and to dissuade His followers from thinking all truth could be conveyed in curt propositions.  I was thinking this morning about Jesus telling Nicodemus that he needed to be “born again” (or perhaps “born from above”) and how it is the Spirit that gives birth to spirit. Maybe it’s just my own hang up or a longstanding misreading on my part, but I have always been puzzled by Jesus’ next assertion in particular: “The wind blows wherever…

The preacher at our American Baptist pastors’ retreat tonight spoke about the importance of experience in the life of our churches. He said it’s what is missing from too many congregations. He said we can have programs and preaching and head knowledge of God, but if we don’t have His presence, something is completely off. He spoke of sitting down to eat at a P.F. Chang’s some time ago only to be told they were out of rice. Later he stopped at an IHOP and ordered pancakes. But his waitress said the restaurant was out of syrup. Not long after…

Some questions can be quite intimidating. This anecdote related in a biography of Henry Kissinger by Walter Isaacson hits right between the eyes: Kissinger once asked his special assistant, Winston Lord, to write a report. After days of effort, Lord submitted his work only to receive it back with this note: “Is this the best you can do?” Lord immediately got back to work on the report, revising it from start to finish, but upon receiving the thing, Kissinger wrote again, “Is this the best you can do?” Lord made another effort to perfect the report, but once again it…

I am feeling sorry for Alistair Begg. If you’re not familiar with him, he’s best known for pastoring a large Reformed church in Cleveland and hosting the Truth for Life radio show. At least that was the sum of Begg’s reputation before this past week when some comments he made several months ago suddenly went viral for all the wrong reasons. Now Begg is being canceled by fellow Christians because he advised a woman to preserve her relationship with her grandson by going to his wedding where the spouse-to-be was a trans individual.  Begg had asked the woman, “Does your…

I grew up in Indiana but had no idea – until I worked a college summer at a church camp in Brown County – that Indiana has rattlesnakes. A rather large rattler had been spotted in the woods of the campground several times throughout the summer. I saw it with my own eyes once – it was at least 8 or 9 feet long. There were rumors that it traveled sometimes with its mate. One day after lunch most of our grade school campers had darted back to the cabins to prepare for afternoon activities and the counselors were being…

A little storm has blown up in the obscure corner of YouTube where Calvinists and non-Calvinists debate each other on a regular basis.  One of my favorite non-Calvinists, Warren McGrew (AKA “Idolkiller”), ignited the storm by making a comparison between Calvinists and Old Testament Molech worshippers which caused great offense among the Calvinists. His comment was turned into a “short” and it garnered a lot of attention.  The central topic was the question of what happens to infants when they die. Consistent Calvinists have to say that just like adults, some infants are elect and some infants are reprobates. The…