Dear Friends, This past Sunday was “Commitment Sunday” at our church. For those of you who missed it, or have never been to one of our Commitment Sunday services, here’s how it works: there is a specific Sunday set aside where all of the volunteer needs of the church are listed on big sheets of paper that are hanging on the walls of the church. Then, after an impassioned plea from the pastor, the congregation prayerfully considers the needs, and commits to doing whatever God puts on their heart to do. I will admit that I was not looking forward to Commitment Sunday this year - mostly because we had a lot of volunteer positions to fill, and our congregation is small. So my expectation was

Dear Friends, This morning I turned on the news while I was getting ready. It was a mistake. From terrorism, to hurricanes, to flooding, to football players kneeling or not kneeling, it was just one story after another about how messed up and divided everything seems to be. Hearing all of that left me feeling a bit discouraged by how big the world is, and how many needs it has. Then that discouragement got me wondering about what sort of “global impact” I could really have as an individual. Or what can our little church do? We struggle just to get volunteers for the nursery, so how can we impact this big, challenging world for Christ? But as I pondered all of that, God reminded me of t

Dear Friends, Recently a friend shared this quote with me from the great British preacher Charles Spurgeon: “Of what value is the grace I profess to have received if it does not dramatically change the way that I live? If it doesn't change the way that I live, it will never change my eternal destiny.” That’s an amazing statement that challenges us to take what we say we believe, and put it into practice. In other words, to demonstrate our faith by our actions. As I’ve been pondering that today, it’s occurred to me that one of the biggest challenges in living out this truth is spiritual legalism. Here’s what I mean - in the modern evangelical world there is a strong emphasis on God’s grace b

Dear Friends, This morning I was reading the story of Nicodemus, as it's told in John 3. For those of you who aren't familiar with this story, Nicodemus was a Pharisee who lived during the time Jesus was doing His ministry on earth. The Pharisees were a powerful group of people who influenced the Israelites in very significant ways because of the authority they had on spiritual matters. It was the Pharisees who interpreted and applied God’s Law, and it was the Pharisees who made sure everyone was following the applications they set out, and it was the Pharisees who handed out punishment when people didn’t follow those applications. There was an amazing certainty that the Pharisees lived w

Dear Friends, Six years ago this month, I was diagnosed with cancer. As you can probably imagine, it was a fairly challenging experience - with all kinds of doctor visits, a couple of surgeries, and then months of radiation treatment that resulted in third degree burns on the arm where the cancer had been. Then, when all of that was done, I started on a schedule of monthly check-ups to make sure the cancer didn’t come back. Five years later, I was declared to be “in remission” and put on a schedule of yearly check-ups, because by that time, the chances of the cancer coming back were greatly diminished. So imagine my surprise when, three weeks ago, I found a lump on my leg that looked and

Dear Friends, Lately I've been spending a lot of time talking to God about the topic of trust. And when I say “talking”, what I really mean is that I've been asking God to help me trust Him more. Here’s why: as I mentioned in the devotional earlier this week, our church is facing some big challenges - with one of the biggest ones being finances. As a small church in a high-poverty community, we have regularly struggled to make ends meet financially. Over the years, we’ve seen God provide for us in amazing ways. Through this process, God has built my faith, as He's supplied what we needed through the congregation, and through the generous support of folks outside of the congregation. How

Dear Friends, Recently I was sharing with a friend some of the rather large challenges our church is facing right now, and as I talked, I could tell by my friend’s expression that he was getting more and more concerned. When I finished talking, he asked in a very serious voice, “So what are you going to do?”. It was a reasonable question to ask - and one that I’ve found myself wrestling with over the past few weeks, as solutions to these challenges aren’t quick and easy ones. But as I’ve wrestled with the question of what to do, God has reminded me that the first, and most important thing I need to do is pray. So that’s the answer I gave my friend: I’m praying. My friend thought about t