Author: S&P

What kind of peace do you hope for in the Middle East? What kind of peace do you pray for? Once again the simmering conflict between Israeli and Palestinian groups has burst into flame. You’ve seen the images of explosions in the middle of residential street, of rockets flying through the air. You’ve listened to the talking heads go at each other over the issue again and again. I wonder, what is y...

What you believe about God changes everything. It affects how you love, work, live, marry, parent, purchase, and worship. Think of just a few popular views that people have about God: Is God an impersonal blob who is uninterested in the world except for figuring out who the good and bad people are? Is “god” a karma vibe making sure everyone gets what they deserve? Is God a myth that weak, stupid, ...

Our summer vacation was interrupted slightly as Hurricane Arthur blew its way up the coast, hitting the seaside town of Beaufort, NC directly.  All the reports indicated that the Category 2 hurricane coming our way was no cause for evacuation, so we stayed and, as my children like to say, “survived the hurricane!”  The storm began in the early evening and then formed into a constant poun...

How’s your prayer life? On a scale of 1 to 10 from non-existent to stellar how would you rate it? I bet most charitably argue for a 6 to 8. Few might place them self in a 9 or 10. Rating myself honestly, I am a solid 3. I know. That’s a low score! But let’s be honest. We live in a world of distraction. If we give ourselves to prayer for a cumulative 30 minutes a day, then that might be a good day....

“Our kids need to go in the ministry. People are dying and going to Hell. Let the world provide the doctors and lawyers and carpenters. We need laborers in the field.” This was the message I heard, growing up, over and over again. The pastor was well-meaning. His desire was to see the church committed to reaching the world with the gospel. But while I’m grateful for the evangelistic impulse it cre...

It wasn’t by the sword, though that did come first. It wasn’t by persecution. It was through the pressures of peace and finances. Back in the 7th and 8th centuries, Muslim conquerors didn’t aim to destroy Christianity. They simply wanted to control it. However, they did manage to extinguish the church’s witness. And it happened by offering security and financial stability. Before the rise of Islam...

With the recent release of the film “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” in theaters, I’m reminded of a few years ago when I launched a new semester of my Doctrine of the Last Things class with the showing of a clip from the original film, Planet of the Apes. The clip my students watched was in the closing moments of the 1968 film, as Charlton Heston is fleeing a civilization in which...

All too often, the textbooks focus solely on the men of the Reformation—Luther, Calvin, Cranmer, and others—and fail to take notice of the faithful women who served among, beside, and with the Reformers. These women were dedicated to the gospel of Jesus Christ, some to the point of martyrdom. Many of these women were well-educated, especially by the standard of their time. They read theology ...

(Image: Cleveland, Ohio) Last week mega-star, LeBron James shocked the sports world by leaving the Miami Heat and returning home to the Cleveland Cavaliers. I was on vacation at the time, so my hotel TV was tuned in, for way too many hours, to Sportscenter. I was tracking this on Twitter and reading as many blogs as I could read without upsetting my non-sports-loving wife and my children. LeBron a...

I was thirty years old and less than two years into my second pastorate. The phone rang and I answered to learn that the father of someone in our church had died suddenly. Would I do the funeral? I had never met the deceased man and knew nothing about his spiritual condition. And this was my first funeral. I had no idea what to do. Thankfully, my own father (a veteran pastor of many years) was vis...

The arrival of thousands of Central American youth immigrants at the U.S. border has created an unprecedented immigration crisis. As Republicans and Democrats are capitalizing on the event to lambaste the other side’s immigration policies, other Americans have traveled to the border to hurl angry protest at the youth. Do we turn them away? Do we bring them in? No solution seems to promise an ideal...

Summer is here and I hope you are planning on taking a vacation. I have read several reports that claim Americans work more hours, take fewer vacations, and retire later, than those in any other industrialized country. And anecdotally I can see what the men and women in our church are doing. We are always working, and seldom resting. As a pastor I encourage the church to take vacation seriously, n...