God certainly blessed our camp sesson this summer in numerous ways. Over 120 folks–missionaries, Christians, families–all came together in Moletai, Lithuania to enjoy a week together of praise, fellowship, study and encouragement. Countires represented at our camp included Lithuania, USA, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, England, Germany, the Czech Republic, Spain and even India and Brazil. Our theme was Redeemed. Each day adults, teens and children had opportunties to study together in classes designed just for them. Each night we gathered to worship together. It was a beautiful r ..read more

If I were to design a way to corrupt a culture; turn evil into good and good into evil, I could not do it any better than what is currently happening in our country. The idea of traditional families has basically been destroyed. The healthy value found in employment is eroding. Crimes that used to have penalties now no longer do. Drug use is legal and/or permitted—creating a generation that works less and stays high more. The tragedy of homelessness is becoming epidemic totally changing life in our cities with few workable solutions apparent. Hate, accusations and blame have become the common ..read more

Back in the day I would disagree with myself here. Then, I bought in hard to the church growth movement. I devoured the books. I attended the seminars. I was a true devotee. I went to many a workshop, sat enthralled at stories of how the presenter’s church was bursting at the seams–growing like crazy! Eagerly I went back to my home church impatient to share and implement all I had learned. Maybe you remember: Everyone needs seven friends to stay connected to a church A church cannot grow beyond 85% of its physical capacity (auditorium seating; class room space; parking spots, etc.) Seminar y ..read more

Babylon the Great has fallen! John’s apocalypse has foreseen the downfall of Rome. God’s judgment was coming and no longer would the empire dominate the world and persecute the followers of the Lamb. Indeed, this was reason to celebrate and praise the God who would bring about this deliverance. It is the day of the Lord, only this time, instead of being of coming with judgment, fire, earthquakes—it arrives with rejoicing. It arrives with the promise of a heavenly wedding. It will be time for those martyred to celebrate, not mourn. This is the hallelujah John’s shares with his readers. He also ..read more

John’s apocalypse continues to unfold and reveal more about the evil nature of Rome and why God’s judgment would fall upon her. In this section Rome is portrayed as a great harlot and once again compared to the infamous immoral and corruptive Old Testament empire, Babylon.  Through these portrayals John shares how Rome influenced and seduced other nations using that power to harm and oppress followers of the Lamb—and how, this brought upon her God’s wrath and her own fall. “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!” he records (18:2).  Once more John, through his symbolic rendering is re ..read more

More signs appear to John as he continues to faithfully record all he witnesses—and he is witnessing much—seven angels; seven plagues; seven bowls of God’s wrath; and a place called Armageddon. Much has been written and speculated about the events in these two chapters. As always, we must keep them tied to context and while we may not be able to completely define down every symbol, we can be assured that those to whom this message was originally intended, did and could. It was spoken into their setting of Roman oppression and it offered tremendous hope—for what John is witnessing in this sect ..read more

Theologian N.T. Wright has an enlightening statement about our current “woke” culture. He observed that it is trying to produce the gospel multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, socially just community only without the gospel. To me this is exactly it. It is not difficult to observe that some of the woke agenda has a kingdom of God element to it. Eradicate racism; sexism; poverty; in order to create a more just and equal community? Sure thing. Scripture has long been advocating for just that (Proverbs 31:8-9; Isaiah 1:17; Amos 5:24; Micah 6:8; Zechariah 7:9-10; Matthew 7:12; James 1:27 to name just a ..read more