A Pastor in The Northwest

  What do you hope today? Or, I could ask it another way like what do you hope for today? Hope is a powerful word isn't it? We sometimes use it at a more surface level like, "I hope it rains" or, well, maybe today, "I hope it stops raining!", etc. Other times hope runs deeper for us - like our hope in eternity. Hope was the final thing left in Pandora's box of Greek mythology. Likely most of us have heard the phrase, "hope springs eternal!" The Apostle Paul wrote that hope is one of three key theological virtues in his first letter to the Corinthian church. Hope is powerful. It can help us endure difficulties. It comforts us to know that God is in control and one day we will be ushered into new heavens and new earth in God's glorious kingdom. If you need a bit more hope today, let me pray the words of 1 Corinthians 15:3 over all of us today: Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in him, so that you may abound in...

Recently I got to go out and fish for tuna off the Oregon coast and it was incredible. The weather was perfect, the ocean was calm (even glassy at times) and of course, reeling in those albacore tuna was a blast! Every time I've been on the ocean and it's been calm and glassy, I always marvel at the beauty of the water reflecting the sky and the clouds. When it is choppy out there, you can't see much reflection at all. I read a devotional that spoke of this idea of calm waters reflecting beauty. Here is an excerpt: WAITING upon God is necessary in order to see Him, to have a vision of Him. The time element in vision is essential. Our hearts are like a sensitive photographer’s plate; and in order to have God revealed there, we must sit at His feet a long time. The troubled surface of a lake will not reflect an object. Our lives must be quiet and restful if we would see God. There is power in the sight of some things to affect one’s life. A quiet sunset will bring peace to ...

Yesterday was 9/11 - a day when all the media outlets replay the tragedy of the brutal attack on the United States.  For the first time in years, I didn't watch any of it. Instead, I reflected on the yearning of all creation for God to bring things to right soon.  I also wrote this: My heart is heavy for those who suffer today - suffer from the loss of friends and family to human-caused tragedies such as the attacks of 9/11 and natural disasters like those in Morocco. You know what? Sometimes there are simply no words. In Romans 8, the Apostle Paul writes of the reality of us and actually ALL creation in distress with a longing for redemption. As NT Wright's translation renders it: 22 Let me explain. We know that the entire creation is groaning together, and going through labour pains together, up until the present time. 23 Not only so: we too, we who have the first fruits of the spirit’s life within us, are groaning within ourselves, as we eagerly await our adoption, the rede...

Veraison...it's happening. What is that you ask?  Good question. Right now all around me here in the Willamette Valley, wine grapes such as Pinot Noir are changing from green to dark purple. This is something that happens each year around late August and early September. What does that mean? It's a special moment when the grapes stop growing and start ripening - developing great flavors and sugar (called 'brix). In fact, according to Wikipedia (must be true...it's on the Internet...):   Fête de la Véraison is a medieval festival held in the famous winemaking village of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Every year at this time it makes me think of changes in us - as we grow and mature in Christ and bear fruit to bless the world.  Jesus told His followers that connection to Him as the vine allows the fruit to flow from us: 4 ‘Remain in me, and I will remain in you! The branch can’t bear fruit by itself, but only if it remains in the vine. In the same way, you can’t bear fruit unles...

  It almost hit my head this morning. It was a close call. A ripe apple falling from a neighbor's tree was aiming for me...well, not really. As I looked at the apple on my desk (hey, free apple), I was thinking about that old idiom, "apple of my eye" and about how God sees us. As David wrote in Psalm 17:8, "Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings" The basic meaning of the idiom is this: something or someone that one cherishes above all others Before we were even born, God loved us. He saw us formed in the womb and loves us so much. As the late Tim Keller said often, “You are more sinful than you ever thought you were.” But then he says, “And you are more loved than you ever dreamed you could be.” You, me, we are special in the eyes of God. His children are indeed the 'apple of His eye' and we are cherished. Do you believe this today? Can you accept your special status and live in that reality today? Lord, help us to kno...

As I write this, we have a dicey air quality outside due to fires burning many miles away. The haze reminded me of the paradox of fire. What paradox? Good question. Fire can destroy and kill and yet fire is essential for purification, cooking food properly, and warmth. We need it but I can hurt us as well. In the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, we find fire in many situations - warmth, metal refining, cooking, worship practices, and judgment. Moses met God through a bush that was on fire. Israel, in returning to the idea of paradox, was both led by fire and at times destroyed by fire by God's judgments. Daniel's 3 friends were in a sense redeemed by God's fire despite King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon right? In the book of Matthew and in Acts we see fire representing the Holy Spirit and the filling presence of Almighty God. Listen to the writer of Hebrews speaking of this: So since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us give thanks, and through this let us offer wors...

Too good not to share this! “ I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me .” (Acts 27:25.) I WENT to America some years ago with the captain of a steamer, who was a very devoted Christian. When off the coast of Newfoundland he said to me, “The last time I crossed here, five weeks ago, something happened which revolutionized the whole of my Christian life. We had George Mueller of Bristol on board. I had been on the bridge twenty-four hours and never left it. George Mueller came to me, and said, “Captain, I have come to tell you that I must be in Quebec Saturday afternoon.” “It is impossible,” I said. “Very well, if your ship cannot take me, God will find some other way. I have never broken an engagement for fifty-seven years. Let us go down into the chart-room and pray.” I looked at that man of God, and thought to myself, what lunatic asylum can that man have come from? I never heard of such a thing as this. “Mr. Mueller,” I said, “do you know how dense this fog is?” “No,” h...