Category Archives: Uncategorized

On my way to my Phoenix Rescue Mission today, where I have been volunteering on Fridays, I stopped by White Tanks Cemetery. White tanks Cemetery is owned by Maricopa County and is used for burying indigent persons — several thousand, in fact, since it opened in 1994. Here’s what it looked like this morning betweenContinueContinue reading “Better To Spend Your Time at Cemeteries Than At Parties”

Near the Phoenix Rescue Mission where I have been hanging out on Fridays this summer during my study break is the White Tanks Cemetery, the burial-place Maricopa County (Metro-Phoenix) uses to bury people who are indigent. More than 3,000 persons are buried in the cemetery that was opened in 1994. The man who heads upContinueContinue reading “White Tanks Cemetery where 3,000 indigent souls are laid to rest”

I have just finished my class at Phoenix Seminary called “The practice of Spiritual Formation.”  It’s been a great 7 weeks as I have joined a dozen other seminary students (most Master of Divinity students) to ponder what it means to have Christ formed in us. On several evenings Jennifer and I have driven aContinueContinue reading “The sunsets can dazzle you”

Last week an entire Phoenix family lost their lives when a flash flood near Payson, AZ, (an hour north of Phoenix) suddenly swept through a popular swimming hole, drowning them all. Many others enjoying the cool stream barely escaped with their lives. As thousands of people in metro-Phoenix do on the weekends in the summer,ContinueContinue reading “10 Phoenix family members all remembered and buried together”

  So about mid-morning I was sitting on a bench outside the Discount Tire Co. near Shea and Scottsdale Road in Scottsdale, AZ. It’s the monsoon season here in Arizona. While I was waiting to have my tires rotated and balanced, rain was giving the Sonoran Desert a drink. Water was dripping off the awning,ContinueContinue reading “Oh the things you might just get to hear!”

A lot of pastors I have met struggle with self-hatred and low self-esteem. I’ve often wondered about this. I think that though people do feel called to some kind of ministry, they also have struggled like crazy in their ministries — in ways they could only have imagined when they said “Yes” to God’s call. SomeContinueContinue reading “Replace your self-hatred with self-confidence”

    In July God makes the Sonoran Desert relentlessly hot. Temperatures rise above 100 degrees Fahrenheit by noon – day after, after day, after day. Neither plant nor creature gets to vote on the matter. What’s a Saguaro Cactus to do? Move north and die? —– Step outside at 4 or 5pm. Step outsideContinueContinue reading “Jesus was a man of the desert”

Just because you are older and more experienced in ministry does not mean you cannot be spiritually blind. There must have been plenty of religious leaders in Jesus’ day older than Jesus, and yet they were leaders who Jesus characterized as spiritually blind (Matt. 15:13-14, 23:16-17). What an indictment from a young rabbi, probably inContinueContinue reading “Learning from those much younger than I”