Category: Salvation

  • Breaking Through Before Breaking Free

    As I prepared my sermon for this Palm Sunday, I felt this sinking feeling. At first, I couldn’t figure out what it was. The truth is I’ve never been a holidays person. Even as a child I asked, “Do we have to do this Christmas thing every year. Actually, I get anxious during almost every…

  • The Gospel According to You

    Let me begin this post by saying that I absolutely love the Bible.  I have read a lot of books in my life and the Bible by far has been the most intriguing work I have ever engaged.  With the exception of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, C.S. Lewis’ Mere…

  • No More of This!

    Luke 22:47-53 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) The Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus 47 While he was still speaking, suddenly a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him; 48 but Jesus said to him, “Judas, is it with a kiss that you are betraying the Son…

  • If You Don’t Have My Back, Get Out of My Face

    So I was talking to my surrogate daughter the other day about life.  She was asking about why it is that we often get bothered when we see people doing the very things that we excuse ourselves for.  The conversation reminded me of a talk I had with my good friend, Jensen Yensen, which he…

  • You Won’t Like Me When I Am Angry

    In Ephesians 4:26, 27 it says “‘Be angry, and do not sin’:do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.”  This is a verse that I have had to remind myself of more frequently in the past few years than I ever have before.  In general I am…

  • I Don’t Need To Look At The Sun To Feel It

    I was on a break during class when I saw a classmate, Sarah Wilson, looking at her smartphone.  I jokingly said to her, how can you be looking at your phone when it’s beautiful out today.  Her response was simple and ultimately struck me as very profound with regard to its spiritual implications.  She replied,…