freedom

Learning not to Love the Church

By Paul Koch –

The smorgasbord that is American Christianity is a plethora of material for running jokes and cultural commentary. Not only is there a conflict between people of the Christian faith and those outside the Church, but there is also an ongoing conflict within Christianity. The Baptists are pretty sure that the Catholics are going to hell, the Lutherans continually frustrate and confuse the Presbyterians (but let’s be honest that’s not hard to do), the Catholics think everyone else is just throwing a temper tantrum and will come home eventually, and on it goes.

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Our Bondage

By Cindy Koch –

More than three decades have passed. I know this only because the marks are scratched into the wall next to where I try to sleep. Sometimes I stare at those crooked lines, losing myself in the valleys of shadows and dust trapped in those tiny crevices. Sometimes I stay up too late counting each slash, remembering, shuddering as the number keeps growing. On the blackest nights, that haunting record on the wall fades into the empty deep. I strain to see a beginning, even an end, but the darkness is too much.

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When I Kept Silent

By Ross Engel –

They say that silence is golden. Sometimes this can most certainly be true. It can be a real treat to find a quiet place to study or read. A quiet afternoon at the beach with the breeze, the ocean waves, a cigar, and a book is my idea of a perfectly relaxing day. Last week, my wife and I got to enjoy a night out. While the night included a lively Irish Dancing show, our evening actually began with an hour of just the two of us lost in conversation in the quiet corner of a mostly empty cocktail lounge. That silence was golden!

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Living Water

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?

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The Danger of Freedom

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.

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Be Strong AND Courageous

By Ross Engel –

Being strong and not putting to good use one’s strength, is a waste. One of my favorite passages of Scripture is found in Joshua 1:9, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” God commands Joshua and His people, be strong AND courageous! But what’s the difference between strength and courage? And how are they related?

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Is Everyone Hitler?

By Joel A Hess –

Want to win a debate? Call your opponent either Hitler or a Nazi. During Obama’s reign, many called his policies fascist as he pushed to restrict free speech and expression, let alone when he promoted programs also popular in the Nazi era such as euthanasia and abortion. Now during Trump’s short stint, many accuse him of Hitler-like tendencies due to his blunt personality, his views on immigration, and his annoying tendency of calling his critics his enemies. Will the real Hitler please come forward? Actually, if you want to know the true heirs of Nazi Germany, take a look at Gene Edward Veith’s wonderful tome, Modern Fascism.

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We Are Not Descended from Fearful Men

By Scott Keith –

“We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep into our own history and our doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes which were for the moment unpopular.” These are the words spoken by Edward R. Murrow as encouragement to those who would stand up in opposition to then Senator McCarthy’s hearings designed to root out all dissenters, whether they were guilty of being communists or not. Mr. Murrow goes on to remind us all of a simple yet exceptionally difficult reality: “We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result.”

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Don’t Touch Me

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.

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Success and Failure

By Ross Engel –

“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.

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Girls Can’t Forgive Sins

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? 

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Forward

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.

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Until

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.

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Dishonesty in Death

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.

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