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Dec, 01, 2009 0
The news that I would spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair was a complete surprise. But what I expected even less were the challenges I encountered at church!
I was a leader, but I had become one of the "broken," and I found the church unprepared to deal with broken people. As pastor I…
Dec, 01, 2009 0
Walking amid the ruins of ancient Ephesus on a hot sunny day in Turkey, I reached down to run my hand over the fluted stone column that lay in the dust at my feet. As my fingers traced the curvature in the stone, I thought about the unknown worker who dressed the massive column in the ancient…
Dec, 01, 2009 0
At times in life the fog and opaqueness of ordinary routines lifts, if only momentarily, and our experiences are illuminated with fresh meaning. Such moments can change life in a powerful way. These moments are like the wispy strands of a spider's web—we must grasp them, or they may slip away and…
Dec, 01, 2009 0
On September 12, 2012, I made the longest walk of an addict’s life—the walk from the parking lot into my first 12-step recovery meeting. I was 44, and I had a golden calf residing in my heart—alcohol. I was an ordained pastor who knew that God had placed a special calling upon my life but never…
Dec, 01, 2009 0
Sometimes, I'll admit up front, I'm bored in church. The songs strike no fire in my heart. A stab at a joke or something funny falls flat. The drama just didn't have it. And the sermon, well, to be honest, I worked on my to-do list through most of it. Not every church service can be a flaming…
Dec, 01, 2009 0
In the north, in extreme cold weather, I have often heard an engineer on a railway, when given an order to proceed, reply, "My engine is dead." It meant he had no steam, no motive power—his engine was lifeless. It may have been the most beautiful engine on the road, with a highly polished exterior…
Dec, 01, 2009 0
In the north, in extreme cold weather, I have often heard an engineer on a railway, when given an order to proceed, reply, "My engine is dead." It meant he had no steam, no motive power—his engine was lifeless. It may have been the most beautiful engine on the road, with a highly polished exterior…
Dec, 01, 2009 0
We call it "the gospel according to Lexi and Kayla." Even though these two sisters from our neighborhood are just a few years older than my 10-year-old son, he accepts much of what they say as absolute truth. Almost weekly they present him with a new "teaching" that my wife and I must refute. I…
Dec, 01, 2009 0
What joy and overwhelming peace come when the Lord makes His simple truths clear to us. Abram’s story occurs before the law, before the rules and regulations, and before the set patterns of behavior for the Hebrew people. Yet from the moment he believed, God called him righteous; all was made right…
Dec, 01, 2009 0
Recently, I had a meeting about 100 miles from my home with my district superintendent, Orville Jenkins Jr. Because I am a new pastor on the North Florida District, we are just getting to know each other. During our lunch he shared with me some amazing stories of lives transformed by the power of…