A Pastor in The Northwest

One of my reasons for hope is God's amazing, overwhelming grace. We sing the hymn Amazing Grace often and it's one of my favorite reminders of God's free and awesome grace. I know I don't deserve it or have earned it - by faith He simply grants it. Wow! Powerful right? Grace can do many things, empowering us to be generous, wise, and even righteous. The greatest blessing God's grace provides, however, is our very salvation. Listen to early church leader Paul's words in Ephesians 2: 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it i...

In Acts chapter 4, we glimpse the emerging new church and their early persecution. Leaders Peter and John testified boldly about Messiah Jesus and the hope of humanity, and they were arrested for doing so. The authorities ask them to stop and they replied that they must obey God first and simply couldn't help talking about what they'd seen and heard from Jesus's life, death and resurrection. They were noted as being bold. Would we followers of Jesus in our daily lives ever be called bold today? What would that look like in modern life? To be holy and bold in current western culture is difficult. To choose love over hate, generosity over gluttony, kindness over indifference? What would people see if we were the first to love our enemies and to do good to those who hurt and disagree with us? Just imagine what a people who are bold in doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with Messiah Jesus (Micah 6:8) could do to change the world? May the early church's prayer ...

This past Saturday I was honored with the privilege of baptizing 4 people into Messiah Jesus. I drove up to a great spot on the Willamette and met the family and we boated downstream for a bit and found a nice place to stop and get down into the water. As usual, in moments like those, I get a bit emotional. Seeing those young people and their mother commit to following Jesus is really powerful to behold. What was great too was that dad got in the water with me and did the baptizing too! It was a great celebration of the power of faith and family. I must have felt like those early church leaders did when whole households said yes to Jesus like Paul and Silas experienced in ancient Philippi: 29 And the jailer[e] called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke ...

  A friend of mine posted this quote from Henry Rollins: "No such thing as spare time, no such thing as free time, no such thing as down time. All you got is life time. Go." Now, I don't know much about Rollins except his questionable days leading the band Black Flag in the 80's, but, the quote struck a chord with me. In praying with a friend over the phone this morning who was distraught over his current circumstances, I mentioned the idea of how, when overwhelmed, simply trying and take the next right step. In other words, at the moment we're in, consider what the next right step would be and take it - not many steps, just the next right one. We may not make it to the next hour or tomorrow, but, we do have today and right now. The scriptures remind us about this reality of the current time: 15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but und...

After a great Alaskan cruise to Glacier Bay, I returned home to research a bit more of a strange regional cooling of the planet that took place between 1680 and 1750 approximately. In 1680, there was simply no Glacier Bay to speak of but by 1750, the cooling ice and snowpack overwhelmed the Tlingit homeland and extended into the Pacific Ocean (Icy Strait)! Apparently, the famous naturalist John Muir found that by 1879, Glacier Bay ice (a place of like a thousand glaciers) retreated almost 50 miles inland from where they'd been in the 1700s! Today it has retreated 65 miles. As I researched, I realized that there's been much chatter historically about how this mini-ice age impacted North American exploration and colonization and so much more (art, literature, etc). I hope my grandchildren get to experience some of those Glaciers like I did and walk near the Mendenhall Glacier north of Juneau someday! 

A week or so ago I spoke about the power of health and spiritual fatherhood in our church gatherings.  In that talk I tried to encourage fathers of all kinds to see how crucial their role in raising up the next generation of faith is and how to go about doing that well. One of the big challenges was to be present at home and to protect what comes into the home environment.  With that, I mentioned modeling faith in Jesus and having other healthy men and women surround kids - people who would say the same things you would say if you were no longer in the picture. Finally, I encouraged dads to be the first ones to read the Bible stories to their little ones.  I used to read a Bible story, tell it in my own words (later let the kids!), and then ask what we learned about God, people, and ourselves and what we might do differently because of what we discovered.  If you need help, here's a starter of 25 that takes you from Creation to Christ here . The other day I noticed a...

I sometimes get a bit down with my physical self. I'll complain inwardly about my poor eyesight, bad hearing, and desire to consume things that are bad for me. Hmmm. That reminds me of an old Alan Jackson song called "Everything I Love"... Anyway, I digress... We are told in Scripture that our bodies are special temples where God dwells - His presence in and through us is powerful. It's crazy to think about. Listen to the Apostle Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 4:7ff (NT Wright's New Testament for Everyone translation): But we have this treasure in earthenware pots, so that the extraordinary quality of the power may belong to God, not to us. 8 We are under all kinds of pressure, but we are not crushed completely; we are at a loss, but not at our wits’ end; 9 we are persecuted, but not abandoned; we are cast down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry the death of Jesus about in the body, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in our body. AND... 16 For this...