A Pastor in The Northwest

I wanted to share this with you today: "Face it out to the end, cast away every shadow of hope on the human side as an absolute hindrance to the Divine, heap up all the difficulties together recklessly, and pile as many more on as you can find; you cannot get beyond the blessed climax of impossibility. Let faith swing out to Him. He is the God of the impossible." Cowman, L. B. (1925). Streams in the Desert (p. 341). The Oriental Missionary Society. What seems impossible to you today? Saving a marriage or relationship? Seeing that addict get truly clean? Someone completely healed of cancer? Having that difficult conversation turned into a beautiful reconciliation? Maybe a day without crippling anxiety or depression? Could God step in today and do the impossible for you or someone you love? If we take Jesus' words seriously, the answer is a resounding yes! But, do we or can we believe it? Do we have it in us to trust and have that little bit of faith that can move mount...

I am ashamed to admit it, but, I missed it. For years of studying Scripture and preaching I somehow read right past this and it is so powerful I had to share it with you... Sometimes Jesus has more than one blessing for us. Often we just miss it or don't seek it out! Maybe we are like CS Lewis once noted that we are far too easily amused or satisfied. Where is this "second" blessing you ask? Open to Luke 17 (NIV) and read about those famous 10 lepers... 11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy[a] met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. 15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. 17 ...

So we are in it. We've officially entered the darkest part of the year. Yay. Sunlight is becoming sparse in our Northern Hemisphere. Next month, say around December 21st, we'll experience the shortest day and longest night. How do we get through this colder, darker bit of season? Scientists call it the 'solar winter' and it lasts into February. Ugh. Well, other than cranking up the heater and breaking out those sweaters, we can look to the light of the world to help us navigate right? There's an older song out there we sing at times written by Tim Hughes (circa 2000?) called Here I Am to Worship: Light of the world, You stepped down into darkness, Opened my eyes, let me see Beauty that made this heart adore You, Hope of a life spent with You. Chorus So, here I am to worship, Here I am to bow down Here I am to say that You’re my God! You’re altogether lovely, altogether worthy, Altogether wonderful to me! We can proclaim, like David did, "O Lord, You are my lam...

This past weekend we observed Jesus praying in the garden with deep agony. He wanted His closest friends close. He was in the midst of a great tribulation that would lead to a Roman cross. He prayed for the Father to take this cup of suffering and wrath away but in the end, Jesus yielded Himself to the greater will of God (see again Matthew 26:36-56). Jesus chose the difficult way because He knew the great joy it would bring to the world (Hebrews 12:1-3). Wow. I hate to admit it but, If given the choice, I'd generally pick comfort over discomfort. That's right - I'd select pleasure over pain and having fun over well, not having fun. Who's with me? However, EASY is not true to the human experience. That's also not the reality for the followers of Jesus. He told us that in this world we WILL have trouble but in that, we could take heart because He's overcome the worst (John 16:33). We don't want to suffer and go through difficulties but, we can seek the Lord...

As I walked to the church building today I was taken aback by the sheer cold, clear beauty of the fall season here in our part of the world. The millions of colors and shades of green, brown, orange, and red, oh my! Something about the cool, fresh breeze when it's 30-40 degrees out for me is so refreshing! Wow. Just staggeringly beautiful - by design! God is in the business of blowing us away with beauty even in the smallest bits! Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky once said, “The world will be saved by beauty.” Well, I like the idea but I think he may have missed the beauty of a grand Creator / Designer who loves us with abandon. We have a perfect Father who knows everything about us and can't stand to be away from us! Maybe today you can take a walk and soak up the beauty of creation all around you...I bet you'll want to pray a prayer of joy! He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what ...

When I was a kid, I didn't like the word NO. I felt like my parents had this word perfected. When we were shopping, "No, you don't need that" or when I wanted to hang out with friends, "No, not this time" or with regard to chores, "No, you can until your chores are done" - ugh! Can you relate? I thought my will was the right thing at all times. Boy, was I naive right? What did I know at that age! When we discover a God who sees everything and yet fiercely loves us reorganizes our sense of will (if we allow it). If He is in charge and cares for us more than anyone, we can trust that His ideas are better - that His will for us is the very best. If we could just submit right? In Jesus's last hours before His death on the cross, He too had to submit to the will of God and suffer. This must have been so difficult - traumatic really. Listen again to the writer of Hebrews (12:1-3 New English Translation): Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a ...

  Ah, the memories... I was about 35 years old and our 2 children were 5 and 9. We moved to Dallas in 2007 - the year of the first Apple iPhone release and a year or so before the great recession hit (yikes - remember that?). I had never preached 2 Sundays in a row in my life at this point. My wife Jackie and I had never planted a church before as the lead planters. But, as God had let us, on Sunday, October 21st, 2007, Dallas Church held its first public worship meeting at the Whitworth Elementary School cafeteria/gym. Looking back we were so clueless. God worked through us in spite of ourselves. Our initial launch team was a big reason we're still alive all these years later. Thinking back to how naive and foolish I was and, well, 'green' in ministry leadership, it is only by God's grace we can look back to lives changed, baptisms, weddings, marriages healed, and a city that would notice if we didn't exist. God is still working in and through all of us @ Dallas C...