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Imagine you walked into my house and on my wall was an original Vincent Van Gogh painting. You would probably assume I was either very wealthy or I was an art thief because Van Gogh’s paintings are virtually priceless.  You might also assume that Van Gogh enjoyed a life of fame and riches.  But that wasn’t at all the life he enjoyed. During his lifetime, Vincent was basically unknown. His parents ridiculed him for his failures. He almost never became…

There’s just something neat about new. The smell of a new car, the look and feel of a new gadget, the cuteness of a new puppy. For lots of folks in our area, a new school year started this past week. There’s optimism in the air, isn’t there? Yep, I messed up last year, but this year’s gonna be different. It’s a beautiful new slate, clean start, a fresh beginning. A brand new me for this new academic year. God…

I’m looking forward to the resurrection, aren’t you? There’s a sense in which we’ve already been raised, of course. When we were brought up out of the baptismal waters, God raised us from our spiritual graves. We were dead, and now we’re alive. We were lost, and now we’re found. But the resurrection isn’t over yet. Sometimes I get sore muscles, and my head hurts (“in this tent we groan,” 2 Cor 5:2). I struggle with sin way more than…

Some folks have a problem with obedience. Actually, we all have a problem with obedience. It seems that we’re hard-wired with an inclination toward doing what we shouldn’t, or not doing what we should. It’s easy to see in kids, of course. It’s not a good parenting technique, but sometimes the quickest way to get a toddler to do something you want him to do is to tell him not to do it. Unfortunately, that little rebellious streak never leaves…

Almost any time you get a group of people together for any length of time you’ll have problems. Take your family, for example. All of you may be trying your best to live right, but I know families well enough to know that you have a few problems. Dad gets grumpy. Mom loses her patience. Little Susie slaps her brother, and little brother doesn’t exactly turn the other cheek. A Christian family doesn’t always act Christian. What about your job?…

I’m writing this on Thursday night Tanzania time, and this is the point in the week when we’re all pretty much both exhausted and exhilarated. We’re tired because of long days of walking and teaching, and we’re excited because of what God is doing in and through the Tanzanian people. And, of course, we’re a little homesick as well, even though things here are going well. Here’s a quick update: This week we’ve focused primarily on three goals: The majority…

Have you ever been around someone who talked about only one thing? Maybe sports or politics. Or clothes, movies, or books. And then a few just like to talk about other people. Paul was like that, I think, or at least he had one thing that dominated his conversations. He spent quite a bit of time in jail, and it’s interesting to think about what it must’ve been like to have been his jailer, or maybe his cellmate. I’m sure…

This week is the time of year when many people throughout the world think more about Jesus Christ than almost any other time, second only to Christmas. In contrast to Jesus’ birth, however, there is more confidence about the timing of his death, burial, and resurrection, since he was crucified during the weekend of the Jewish Passover. It is encouraging to see an increased interest in Jesus, especially when this annual interest leads people to pursue a relationship with him…

The idea of formally setting apart certain things, people, days, and times was an important part of Old Testament worship.  Take a look at Exodus chapter 29 where we see a detailed process by which priests were to be consecrated so that they could serve.  It involved a special anointing oil, ceremonially laying hands on the animal to be sacrificed, sprinkling the animal’s blood, and a number of other steps. Similar processes were followed for consecrating the temple’s contents.  Among…