Weekly Updates (Page 15)

Dear Friends, Tim and Debbie Friesen had a pretty significant moment this week.  A first for them.  Something I hope all of you will get to experience at least once in your lifetime. Here it is.  That’s right.  Their first trip to In-N-Out Burger.  Tim sent me this picture along with his review.  “Great food and service” (Tim was being uncharacteristically succinct with his appraisal).  As it turns out, Tim had a chance to visit with the manager, a 20 year veteran of In-N-Out,…

Dear Friends, Happy Pi (3.14) night. Pardon me.  I’m about to go on a rant. Over the past several months, we’ve been having an ongoing cultural conversation about men and women and boundaries and harassment and sexual assault.  You’ve read the headlines.  You know that names of the men who have lost their jobs and their livelihood because they were exposed.  And you know the issue is widespread.  Someone turned on the light and all of a sudden, shameful acts…

Dear Friends, There is a connection between genuine revival and repentance. In recent weeks, as we’ve been exploring what the Bible teaches us about those times when God, by His Spirit, does a deep work of awakening grace in an individual or in a church or in a community, we’ve seen how it begins as people humble themselves before God and get honest about their sin. But getting honest about our sin is not where the process ends.  The next step in the…

Dear Friends, On Sunday we talked about how one of the hallmarks of a genuine revival among God’s people is deep contrition – a profound awareness of the ugliness of our sin and a strong desire to confess, repent and be cleansed from our unrighteousness. There is another, almost paradoxical hallmark of revival in people’s lives.  It’s a deep, strong joy that fills the soul of the revived man or woman. Most of us think that joy is an emotion.  The Bible says that…

Dear Friends, Show me any person God has used in a powerful way to influence many and I will show you a person who has attracted a legion of critics and naysayers. I was thinking about that reality today as I reflected on the news of the passing of Dr. Billy Graham.  I think it’s fair to say that no one more than Billy Graham was the public face of Christianity around the world in the last 70 years.  From…

Dear Friends, Most of us are really confused about what real love looks like.  And Valentines Day is part of the problem.  So is Shakespeare.  His sonnets didn’t help.  Neither did the start-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet.  Hallmark and Hollywood are in on the conspiracy.  And don’t even start with how pop songs have warped our understanding about love.  So here we are, intelligent men and women living in the 21st century world of Alexa and iPads, with self driving cars…