What About My Doubts?
In the 1990s, there was a band, five o’clock people, a fully-acoustic, coffee-house ensemble that popped up in Portland, Oregon. They were unique and, in many ways, quite good. One of their songs titled Lunar describes the difficult pursuit of faith as “a lunar endeavor” wherein we constantly grasp for daylight but end up with fistfuls of…
Read MoreThe Great Roll Call of Faith
The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is a convicting read, frequently referred to as “The Great Roll Call of Faith.” That’s an apt description for a chapter forty verses long wherein name after name after name after name is called out, noted for inspiring faith in the face of horrific opposition. The chapter opens like this:…
Read MoreTest the Spirits. Yes, Seriously. Test Them.
I talk and write often about our battle being not against flesh and blood. Our battle is not against the person standing in front of us, or against the antagonist “shouting” at us through the computer monitor. We battle against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. We are physical participants in a…
Read MoreRemember Your Creator
One of the more familiar and oft-quoted verses of the Old Testament is the opening line to the final chapter of Ecclesiastes. I’ll quote it here from the King Jim since that’s how most will have heard it. Remembering “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth . . . – Ecclesiastes 12:1, KJV…
Read MoreWhen Our Idols Become Our Undoing
I am uncertain why this is, but I have always felt a certain affinity toward the book of Jeremiah. It is loaded with amazing stories, events, and prophetic teaching/warning. Coming in at 33,002 words, Jeremiah holds the honor of being the longest book in the biblical canon. There is one unique thing about Jeremiah –…
Read MoreLoving Well
There is a phrase I heard in seminary that has stuck with me for decades because it is both catchy and true. “Text out of context is pretext.” For Christmas, last year, Alean made me a coffee mug that says, “I can do all things through a verse taken out of context.” Context is critical,…
Read MoreBuilding Well and Being Built
Years ago, I worshipped with a small group of believers who did a church plant in Bellingham, Washington. They named the plant, “Oikos,” a transliteration of the Greek term οἶκος, which simply means “house.” I thought it was a pretty cool name for a church plant. But variations on the term οἶκος take us in…
Read MoreFinishing Well
In his book Good to Great, one of my favorite business authors, Jim Collins, tells the story of a high school’s men’s and women’s cross-country teams that successfully transitioned over five years’ time from being a pretty good team to being a perennial contender for the state championship. At the time of the story, the teams…
Read MoreWullerton & Spiritual Obstinacy
Following the raising of Jairus’ daughter from the dead,1 and healing two blind men and a demon-possessed man,2 Jesus began working his way through Galilee, preaching, teaching, healing, and grieving over a populace that was “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”3 The pitiable condition of the Galilean people left them well-disposed toward gospel truth, and…
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