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I had a funny conversation with a group of pastors on a 5-hour ride to a meeting.  One said, "I have a question.  'Do you think you are right?'" (Mind you, no topic was on the table.  Just the question.)"Absolutely," one of the pastors answered.Looking at me, the person who put the question on theContinueContinue reading “Are you right?”

Here is extremely seasoned, thoughtful and biblical advice from Pastor John Piper (Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis) to his staff at the staff and spouse annual retreat earlier this week.  [It's a bit long but a fast read … Truthfully, reading and digesting it may save you a lot of grief in the future…]Six Biblical Guidelines for LovingContinueContinue reading “How a church staff should love each other”

Nineteen years ago, when our daughter Maddie had just turned one, Jennifer and I befriended a new international student from China named Zhang Bo.  I hung out with Bo … teaching him to drive, taking him out to American farms and going with him to the grocery store.  He used to come over to our home frequently to eatContinueContinue reading “Befriending Bo”

Just as I was pulling out of the parking lot of the Rolla, Missouri, Vineyard Church, this morning, I thought to snap a picture.I had just spent three-and-a-half hours with pastor Matt Forest, who has been on the staff since 2002.  (His conversion story is so fantastic, hearing it blew me away.  It took him 2 hours to tell meContinueContinue reading “A great idea at the Rolla, Missouri, Vineyard Church”

Maddie Follis with her medal at the finish! The official time … 3 hours, 58 min. and 14 seconds! Sweet! Maddie and best friend Chelsea ran together.  Here they are after the race … 2 of the most beauitul women on the planet!

The inaugural Illinois Marathon is Saturday, April 11.  Maddie Follis (in the Illinois Marathon cap) and her good friend Chelsea Frerichs will be among the more than 9,000 runners (2,000 marathoners, 4,400 half-marathoners, about 3,000 5K runners) .  A guy at the gym said to me today, "26.2 miles is a long way to drive.  AndContinueContinue reading “Two beauties ready to run”

64 years ago today Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged for his part in the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler.  Most people who know of him know him only for one famous sentence.  The Cost of Discipleship is one of the most influential books I have ever read.  I first read it while still a college student butContinueContinue reading “When Jesus calls a man…Words for Holy Week”

The Nicene Creed adopted in 325 A.D. countered false teachings that Jesus is not fully man and fully God.  Some of the questions here come from a third-century poet known as St. Ephrem the Syrian (~306-373) …If he was not Flesh, whose garments were stripped from Him and divided among the soldiers?  And if heContinueContinue reading “Jesus, the Savior and Lord, is both God and Man”