“I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency].” Philippians 4:13 Amplified Bible Not everyone makes New Year resolutions, but those who do often make one of several mistakes. Their […]
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Stepping Into Tomorrow Confidently
“I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” Mark Twain I doubt you missed the news, but we’re about to enter a new year. And we begin this year immediately after a nation-altering election. Some were confident before November 8th but are fearful now; others were fearful before […]
Still the Blueprint
60 Seconds of Pastoral Ponderings A blog for leaders As a pastor I get excited reading the Book of Acts. And why not? It’s still the blueprint for the church right now. Nations rise and fall, morality takes center stage and a decade or two later is kicked clear out of the theater. Opinions […]
Footprints Through Our Memories
We visited a church this morning that we had ministered in for ten years. But twenty eight years have passed since then. I walked into a familiar foyer, looked at the familiar pews and picked out faces of people who had walked through our lives and left footprints in our memories. There were kids […]
A Greeting From Paul & Joanie
What a joy to be writing this Christmas letter from Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho … our new ‘old home.’ We left this beautiful place 28 years ago and have returned to a place we truly love In the interim we have moved many times, but it allowed us to meet and become friends with some […]
Finding The Baby
“ … You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Luke 2:12 NIV We find these words in one of Scriptures most implausible stories. As heaven’s PR advance team break into earthly view, they drop the most important news ever into the laps of some of the least likely recipients. […]
Giving Is More Fun!
Long before there was Cyber Monday, Amazon.com, digital store ads and multitudes of television commercials for every imaginable (and some unimaginable) products … there was the Sears catalog. When Richard Sears first used printed mailers to advertise his products in 1888, the time was ripe for mail order business. Fueled by the Homestead Act […]
Planting The Right Seeds
There’s a hole in the bottom of our ‘seed bags.’ We’re constantly sowing seeds as we move through life … seeds of kindness, seeds of indifference, seeds of joy or sadness and despair. We plant seeds of righteous living or a corrupt lifestyle. And what we sow is what we have put into our […]
Ingredients
Note: Thought you might need this reminder from Thanksgiving 2013 … be blessed! WARNING: THIS MESSAGE MAY MESS WITH YOUR PLANS FOR THE WEEKEND! “So, how was your Thanksgiving?” “Tiring, but so worth it. Watched a couple of games on TV before we grabbed a chicken salad sandwich and then headed to BestMart to get […]
Heaven: Not What, But Who!
Heaven’s pretty difficult to explain since none of us have been there and returned to give a thorough first-hand report. So we concentrate on what heaven will look like. We describe streets paved with gold, walls and gates made of precious stones. We’d really like to talk about the ‘mansions’ but Downton Abbey is our […]