By Graham Glover –
Want to see something scary? Something that should completely frighten you?
Look in a mirror.
Scared of what you’ll see? You should be.
forgiveness
By Paul Koch –
Think back to earlier this morning, think back to when your alarm clock went off and you eased out of bed. You gently put your feet on the floor and sat on the edge of the bed for a moment, not sure if you are excited to be up and moving or if it would just make more sense to roll back under the warm covers. It is a Sunday morning. The plan is to go to church – but for a moment you ask yourself, why? And I don’t mean some great philosophical inquiry into the meaning and purpose of religion, I mean why bother going this morning? Will it be that big of a deal if you just slept in? Would anyone miss you? Is it really all that important? After all, there is always next week or the week after that. It’s not like the church is going anywhere. Why do you go through the process? Getting up and showering, grabbing a cup of coffee and a quick bite to eat, getting the kids ready, rushing through one delay after another to gather in a house of worship… is it really all that important?
By Caleb Keith –
I have vivid memories of the first day I was allowed to ride my bike to school all by myself. The ride was only about a mile and half long and consisted of calm city streets that had a max speed limit of 25 mph. At the time, I saw no signs of danger and didn’t understand the risk my parents were taking by letting me embark on this journey. Instead, all I imagined was bragging to my friends when I finally got to class. Looking back now, I see how easily I could have been hurt or killed by one poor decision or a distracted driver. I am so glad that my parents let me take those risks, as it brought me great joy and taught me that the rules of the road aren’t arbitrary guidelines set by mom and dad, but that following or breaking them could have a real impact on my life.
By Graham Glover –
This is my body.
This is my blood.
It’s really quite simple. Body. Blood. Not a symbol. Not a representation. Not a quaint memorial. It’s real, corporeal, and physical. It’s what Jesus says it is.
By Scott Keith –
A few years ago at the very tail end of my vacation, Joy and I took all of our children and Dr. Mallinson’s son, Auggie Mallinson, to Yosemite. While Joy and I have been several times, by mere coincidence of timing and obligation, most of our children have not seen the grandeur of the Yosemite Valley. Joy, Autumn, and I left Dr. Rosenbladt’s house in Portland and drove to meet everyone else (Caleb, Erika, Joshua, and Auggie) at the Bass Lake resort just outside of Yosemite. We had fun at Bass Lake driving Jet Skis and cooling off in the now almost completely empty lake. Bass Lake is fun, but it is no Yosemite.
By Cindy Koch –
Little hands entwine. Circles of children begin to spin. Laughs and giggles, faster and faster. Bounce, bound, bump, bob. They all fall down.
Ring around the Rosie is a classic childhood game. Generations of our children have chanted this simple rhyme. We have spun together, we have fallen together, and we have gotten up to play just one more time.
By Ross Engel –
One of the mortal sins of combat is known as Fratricide. It is the killing of one’s teammate; it is the killing of one’s brother. Perhaps you’ve heard it called “Friendly fire” or an instance of “blue on blue.” It is one of the most horrific parts of war, and as long as there has been combat, there have been accidental incidents of fratricide. The 1989 Tom Cruise movie, “Born on the 4th of July” depicts the confusion that takes place in the midst of battle, “the fog of war,” and the accidental killing of one’s own teammate. The psychological scars of this action would haunt Tom Cruise’s character, real life Vietnam War veteran, Ron Kovic, for the rest of his life.
By Joel A Hess –
From Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount to the Matthew 18 passage on church discipline that never goes out of circulation, Christians have wrongly used Jesus’ words to establish new bureaucracies. Ironically, our Lord used these same exact words to tear down the bureaucracy of the day. Some church bodies have even set up constitutions specifically based on what they believe is Jesus’ prescription for sin management. Others are more subtle. Instead of hearing “Christ, the mediator of a new covenant,” many in our pews hear, “A new bureaucracy I give unto you!”
By Scott Keith –
Over the past several years, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be a man. I am not talking specifically about gender or what does or does not hang between one’s legs. I am discussing what the essence of man is, or said more simply, what makes a man what he is.
By Cindy Koch –
The clouds hung low this last Sunday morning. Already shivering as I stepped outside, I called back to the hustling brood to grab their jackets before we piled in the car. Damp palm trees and lonely puddles hinted that it was about to rain, but only a gray mist colored our morning drive to church. The children and I traveled together in unusual silence, taking in the gloom.
By Cindy Koch –
There are times when a touch on my skin has made it crawl. I remember this feeling most clearly when I was pregnant and the crazy hormones pulsed throughout my body. Every sense was heightened during that strange and wonderful nine months. During that time, most everything that touched me sent prickles down my spine and registered on a scale of nausea.
“Success” is a loaded word. It is such a subjective word that it can be challenging to nail down what a person means when they start talking about “success” and “failure.”
Consider the various vocations and duties that you have. If I consider the various stations of life that God has given me, I can say that I am a husband, father, son, pastor, boss, brother, friend, neighbor, and probably a handful of other things to a variety of people. But how do I determine whether or not I am a success in any of these stations of life? I ask this, because lately I haven’t been feeling terribly “successful” at life.
By Cindy Koch –
It’s a hard mouthful to forgive someone their sins. They are some of the most awkward words to come out of your mouth. Firstly, you are bold enough to actually say “I forgive you,” which is not one of our top ten automatic responses in uncomfortable situations. Secondly, by pronouncing forgiveness, you are admitting that this person before you has sinned. In our passive aggressive culture, looking someone in the eye and calling sin a sin is a feat of bravery. Thirdly, this person probably didn’t even sin against you, so you are speaking the powerful words of God in His stead concerning His eternal judgement. You might wonder, who are you to proclaim these life-giving, sin-loosing words?
By Bob Hiller –
Very few times do I remember getting yelled at by my parents. They were pretty gracious folks. The times they did raise their voices stand out in my memory. I recall one time my mom yelled at me for my behavior in church. It was one of the most formative moments of my life.
By Cindy Koch –
There is an underground world of hidden powers that the mortal world knows nothing about. A league of superheroes lives and works among you. We walk around by the light of day in tennis shoes and yoga pants. We pick our kids up from school in minivans. We blend into grocery store lines and walk our dogs through the park. We wake up early and meet at the office or the gym. We stay up late and watch Netflix. We are everywhere, but you might never even notice us.
By Scott Keith –
Happy New Year, everyone! As I sit next to a roaring fire in our cabin in Big Bear and write this blog, I am trying to envision what 2017 will be like. The truth is, I have no idea. For me, and I suspect for others, 2016 was a mixed bag of both personal victories and failures. That is life, at least until the Lord comes again to bring us to Himself in glory. This year, I have been quite surprised to learn about all the people who call 2016 the worst year ever. And culling social media toward the close of the year reminded me of a series I binged watch with Joy this year.
By Paul Koch –
The story of Christmas moves pretty fast. Since the beginning of November all the way up until Christmas morning you could find Christmas music on the radio, find the decorations and lights just about everywhere you shop, and people would greet you by saying “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays”. Then, like the sudden closing of a good book, it all just stops. Everything quickly shifts back to normal. In fact, though there is a great amount of buildup in the churches around Christmas time, we also move quite quickly from that silent, holy night. For the story of our Lord’s birth must move on. He didn’t come to just make a big splash, to be announced by angels and be born of a virgin. No, He came for a purpose and the text of Scripture moves us quickly along to get to the heart of why He came.
By Ross Engel –
On January 1, 1998, MTV premiered a brilliant Claymation TV show called Celebrity Deathmatch. This vividly violent and quite hilarious show depicted clay versions of various celebrities battling to the death in the ring. While it was clever the way these clay celebrities met their demise, what was especially amusing was that announcers Johnny Gomez and Nick Diamond (and the celebrities themselves) were bluntly honest about these stars. If a celebrity had a drug addiction, plastic surgery, or some major character flaw, the creators of the show would mercilessly incorporate those flaws into the clever and gruesome ways that the celebrities would fight and die. The show ran for several seasons, pitting celebrity against celebrity to the death. Its violent run ended in 2002.
By Paul Koch –
When my wife and I took a trip to the Holy Land back over a year ago I noticed that as I would enter into some ancient church to take a few pictures and examine the details of the architecture and art forms throughout the building, my wife would often disappear from my side. She would often make a cursory pass through the building and then slip back outside. When I found her sitting on a bench outside one of the old church buildings she confessed that it was a just too much. These holy sites were covered by old churches, most of which had newer churches built over the tops of them, and inside there were icon screens and oil lamps and gold candlesticks and paintings on the walls and what appeared to be levels upon levels of man-made coverings over these places where our Lord walked this earth. What she wanted was far more simple than the artistry and craftsmanship we had taken in. What she wanted to see was just some dirt: some dirt where, perhaps, once upon a time our Lord walked.
By Paul Koch –
We don’t often spend much time talking or ever thinking all that much about Joseph. His story is an incredible story. His call to be the protector and provider for the blessed mother of our Lord gives us a powerful image of Christian faithfulness and strength of character. Instead of abandoning Mary when he learns that she is with child, he lovingly cares for her, protects her, and watches over the child she will bear as a sacred trust. However, Joseph, like any of you, doesn’t work his way into this prominent and place. He doesn’t come to these conclusions and resolve to faithfully go forward all on his own. No, he needs an angel of the Lord to appear to him and reveal this good news that is happening to Mary. So, one of the lessons we learn here at the very beginning of the Christmas story is that God’s plans, gifts, and blessings are not gained by our cleverness. They must be revealed to us.