Fanning spiritual flames

When we awoke one early spring Saturday morning, the temperature was cooler than anticipated, the wind was blowing and the skies were cloudy. It all added up to one more day to build a fire in the fireplace before the spring weather arrived for good. All day we enjoyed the warmth and coziness of the […]

The tongue is a fire

Paul, a friend in seminary, once told of a remarkable junior high adventure. It seems that one summer afternoon he and a friend went prowling through the attic in Paul’s house. There they found a trunk with a few mementos from his father’s career in the military — helmets, hats, uniforms, papers, hand grenades.…Yes, hand […]

Sermon: What Will You Do with God’s Word?

What Will You Do with God’s Word? Psalm 119:41-48 January 11, 2015 In one of our early years of marriage, Raye Jeanne was trying to be creative with her cooking and trying to come up with some healthier options that tasted similar to some of our favorite meals. And so one night she put a […]

Read your Bible in 2015

The goal of every follower of Jesus Christ is to become like Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:28-29; Col. 1:18, 28). And one of the primary means God uses to transform the believer is the Word of God (Ps. 1; 1 Pt. 2:1-3; 2 Pt. 1:3; 2 Tim. 3:16-17). The believer will not grow spiritually if he […]

But it tastes good

In 1960, Dr. Stanley Garn, working for the Fels Research Institute, whose objective was to study the physical growth and maturation of children, made this not-so-stunning conclusion: “[Milk shakes], fat-meat hamburgers, bacon and mayonnaise sandwiches may be good for the undertaker and bad for the populace.” In other words, there are some things that, while […]

What God looks like

When I was in high school, I worked for a grocery store where an impressively large man used to shop with some regularity. One day someone asked me, “You know who that is, don’t you?” “No.” “That’s Keith Fahnhorst; he’s an offensive tackle for the San Francisco 49ers!” From then on, this football fan was […]

Stop letting sin reign

The father had been busy all week and made a plan to have a special time with his son. So Saturday morning, off they went. First stop? The donut shop. A few minutes later they were headed down the road. “Dad, can I hold the donut holes?” An interesting proposition that was fraught with possibilities! […]

Thanks be to God for freedom

While on vacation a number of years ago, we turned on the hotel television to watch the morning news and were greeted with images from France. President Clinton was honoring fallen veterans on Omaha Beach. Crosses — lots of crosses (some without names) — marking a sea of graves of men who never made it […]

When you look at the church…

In an essay on the life of Dwight Eisenhower, historian Stephen Ambrose recounts the following story: In 1963, when he was filming with Walter Cronkite a television special entitled ‘D-Day Plus 20 Years,’ Cronkite asked [Eisenhower] what he thought about when he returned to Normandy. In reply, Eisenhower spoke not of the tanks, the guns, […]

You have one wish…

It’s your birthday. And positioned on the table in front of you is your celebration cake, loaded with far too much candlepower — bearing testimony to your advancing age. Your family and friends encourage you to “make a wish” before you have your lung capacity tested in the attempt to extinguish the dancing flames. What […]

“I’m tired…”

Are you tired? Maybe this is why: I’m tired because I’m overworked. The population of this country is 237 million, and 104 million are retired. That leaves 133 million to do the work. There are 85 million in school, which leaves 48 million to do the work. Of this, there are 29 million employed by […]

Hungry?

In his book Finding God in Unexpected Places, Philip Yancey recounts the story of some early Spanish sailors who reached the continent of South America after an arduous voyage. “The caravel sailed into the headwaters of the Amazon, an expanse of water so wide the sailors presumed it to be a continuation of the Atlantic […]

No ordinary man

Most of us are pretty ordinary people. Perhaps we have some influence in our particular circle of relationships, but the breadth and depth of influence for the majority of us is neither significantly deep or wide. And that is true of most individuals mentioned in Scripture as well. Sure, we know the stories of Abraham […]

Do not be worried about your life

It would be a lot easier to enjoy your life if there weren’t so many things trying to kill you every day. The problems start even before you’re fully awake. There’s the fall out of bed that kills 600 Americans each year. There’s the early-morning heart attack, which is 40% more common than those that […]

God is calling

When I was a child, shopping was not one of my most favoritist things to do. [Actually, it still isn’t — unless it’s a bookstore.] So I had a tendency to kind of wander away on my own, in search of a good book or another pack of baseball cards. But when it came time […]