Month: January 2021

Check Your System

A gasoline engine will not run on diesel fuel. I know that, and yet, several months ago I had to learn it all over. I picked up the wrong fuel can and poured five gallons of diesel into a gas tank. Everything was fine for a minute, but as soon as the fuel pump began …

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A Pastor Looks at 40

I turn 40 next week. 40. It is true, some have mistaken me for much older and some have even thought Angela was my daughter. So, in some ways it is like I have been at least 40 for a while now, but the actual birthdate is next week. On Wednesday, February 3, 2021, I …

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Episode 39: A Guide to Better Thinking

Slow thinking doesn’t fit well within the age of social media and immediate news. Slow thinking looks more like philosophy and conversation and less like soundbites and tweets. Slow thinking looks like books and newspapers, coffee shop conversations, and complicated intellectual wrestling matches. Slow thinking takes hard topics and resists the temptation to boil them down to their least common denominator and instead wrestles with the hard and complicated truths.

Be quick to listen and slow to speak. The world will one day thank you for it.

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The Church Who Lived

The first chapter in the first book in the Harry Potter series is called, The Boy Who Lived. If you have read the books or seen the movies, you know that the first chapter sets the stage for the rest of the series. Young Harry Potter, only a baby, didn’t die when he was attacked …

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Biscuits Matter

“Do you know we haven’t had biscuits in four weeks?” That question was posed by my oldest son last week. Angela (my wife) has spoiled our children. She has them on a regular Saturday morning rotation of biscuits and pancakes. One week she bakes homemade biscuits, the next week she makes pancakes. Every Saturday. Everyone …

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Evangelicalism: Biblical Fidelity or Political Expediency

I recently read Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez with every intention of writing a thorough book review. Du Mez is a good writer and has carefully sourced the book. In fact, I know it is well written because I actually enjoyed reading it, even though I disagreed with so much in …

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Be A Pastor, Not A Politician

I avoid political partisanship like the plague. In 13 1/2 years as a senior pastor, I have never endorsed a political candidate for state or federal office. In fact, the only political candidate I have ever publicly supported is a pastor friend who ran for county council–and even then I did so with trepidation. I …

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Don’t Forget 2020 Too Quickly

If you have ever inhaled a moth while riding a bike, you know that somethings do not taste good. When you inhale a moth on your bike, you don’t cherish the moment, you gag and spit and cough. You do everything possible to get that chalky, nasty taste out of your mouth as quickly as …

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Episode 38: Seven Arrows with Donny Mathis

Dr. Donny Mathis wrote The Seven Arrows along with his pastor, Dr. Matt Rogers. On this episode of the podcast, I speak with Donny about how the Seven Arrows can help you to understand and apply the Bible. We also work to show how skipping straight to application can cause us to misunderstand and misapply God’s word.

You can also find the Seven Arrows Study Bible here.

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