Carl Jung (1875-1961) was a prognosticator: “The world will ask you who you are, and if you don’t know, the world will tell you.” It is shameful how ill-prepared American teenagers are to withstand the woke ideology flooding our schools. How many are able to stand unshaken before woke teachers and peers?  Christian teens at least should know who they are in Christ, but how many churches are providing their young people with more than games and pizza?

“Prayer (Dallas Willard as quoted/paraphrased by Bill Gaultiere)

Last night I pondered the mystery of the story of Adam and Eve’s fall and expulsion from the Garden of Eden – how one might expect a whole lot more anger from the wrathful God portrayed by certain Christians. Those terrible humans had fouled God’s good creation and broken the relationship between God and man.  If it would prove too deadly to have fire and brimstone raining down in that moment, surely a light sprinkle would be an appropriate way to show a holy God’s great displeasure. Instead the Lord sews up some clothes for the naked couple and sends…

I keep looking at the story of Adam and Eve’s fall into sin in Genesis 3, wondering why the story is not told in such a way as to appeal more to all the “Wrath of God” type preachers.  To be clear, I know that the wrath of God, God’s holiness, and God’s hatred of sin are all very real, but why are all of these so very muted in that historic moment when the first humans disobey God and unleash sin into His creation? Consider the following: None of that speaks of fire and brimstone to me. In fact,…

I remember thinking that Marvin Gaye was using hyperbole when he cautioned his listeners to “believe half of what you see and none of what you hear”. In 2023, that advice doesn’t sound unnecessarily exaggerated.  There’s a great scene in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol when Ebenezer Scrooge is confronted by the ghost of his old business partner Marley. Scrooge’s first instinct is to dismiss the spirit as a figment of his imagination. “You don’t believe in me,” observed the Ghost. “I don’t,” said Scrooge. “What evidence would you have of my reality, beyond that of your sense?” “I don’t know,”…

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday – and Easter is the Super Bowl for preachers, so I am keeping this short tonight. I have two separate sermons to preach tomorrow morning and the second one still isn’t where I want it.  I plan to share one of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes in our second service tomorrow: “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance, the only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” What he said goes for the resurrection of Christ as well – If Christ was not raised, Christian faith is of no importance.…

This week I was offered the opportunity to say the closing prayer at a community Good Friday service.  Knowing that I sometimes verbally stumble around in my public prayers, I decided to go into the evening prepared. I first Googled “Good Friday prayers” and scrolled through several pages looking for the perfect prayer. I got bupkis. Then a 2023-inspired thought popped into my head: Let’s see what ChatGPT might come up with. Honestly, the prayer written by AI was better than a lot of the others I was reading on line, so I emailed myself the text intending to simply…

In 1756 John Wesley wrote out his exhortations for pastors in his charge in a booklet entitled Address to the Clergy.  And let’s just say Wesley had high standards for preachers.  For instance: Along with his studies of Greek and Hebrew and Latin and various sciences, the ideal preacher should also have “some knowledge of geometry”. I kid you not. Nevertheless, I did find within Wesley’s Address some advice that would set the American church back on a proper course, if it were to be followed. Wesley says the pastor must be kind but tough. Never shrinking away from confronting…

Here’s an incredible passage from the 103rd Psalm, one of my favorites: 8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious,slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion. 9 He will not always accuse us,nor harbor His anger forever. 10 He has not dealt with us according to our sinsor repaid us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,so great is His loving devotion for those who fear Him. 12 As far as the east is from the west,so far has He removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father has compassion on his…