A Pastor in The Northwest

  My wife Jackie and I watched a movie this past week that was underwhelming at best. The actors themselves were fine but the storyline, dialogue, and ending were terrible. The movie was so bad that even the main actors publicly dismissed it. Yikes. Critics let loose on it with descriptions like 'airless and stilted' and 'an embarrassing mess.' Turns out the production cost to make that almost 2-hour film totaled about $100 million. So, after a dismal box office return, I think they may have broke even. Meh. I found myself thinking we could have spent the time so much better doing something else - walking, reading, playing a game, watching paint dry... Next time we'll choose differently how to spend our evening... Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash

In high school, I had a desire to enter the military. My hope was to join with either the Army or Marines through the officer training track. It was looking good for me until that dreaded physical revealed my seasonal asthma. That was an immediate rejection. Ugh. I was heartbroken. Turns out God had other things in store for me which I'm grateful for! It was only after I'd been walking with Jesus for a while that I realized that military service or not, I was in a battle - one fought for my soul and others. Early church leader Paul spoke about this in Ephesians 6 where he reveals that our real battle or struggle isn't against humans but spiritual forces of evil! In a video talking about his book "Live No Lies", author John Mark Comer reminds us that we're born into a warzone where there's a battle raging all around us - a battle between truth and lies, spirit and flesh, and God's kingdom versus the systems of the world. Further, while this battle isn

This past weekend here in our church we celebrated moms of all kinds and had 5 families dedicate their young children to follow Jesus. It was powerful. During the time of worship music, we sang a song that I thought was such a good reminder about our loving Father. The song is called "The Goodness of God" and the chorus lyric cries out: All my life you have been faithful All my life you have been so, so good With every breath that I am able I will sing, of the goodness of God (here's a great live recording of the song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0FBb6hnwTo ) Have you thought about the blessing of God's goodness today? Sometimes it is in the big things like newborn children and sometimes in the little things like a flower in bloom or a cool breeze. Moses wanted to see and know God's glory early in his leadership role for ancient Israel. In an article I read today, it says this: “Moses said, ‘Please show me your glory.’ And the Lord said, ‘I will make all m

The weekend included 2 'special days' people celebrate: Cinco De Mayo and May the Fourth. The first is a not-so-celebrated Mexican commemoration of the battle of Puebla (1862) and Star Wars Day ("may the 4th/force be with you..."). I saw more than a few social media posts of people celebrating Star Wars Day and I was surprised at how many really lean into identifying with the old science fiction movie franchise. Actually, it made me think of our identity and what we are known for out there in the world. What is the church (you and me!) known for? When people think of church in general and Christians in particular, what's the vibe we give off? Good food for thought, right? What if, by God's grace and power, we, Jesus' church, could more and more be known for love, faithfulness, caring, compassion, respect, etc.? Imagine a day when the church is considered the ones who radically love the least of these? "By this, all people will know that you are my