I hate privet.  Just in case you don’t know what privet is, I’ll tell you.  It is a bush. Or a tree.  Or a plant.  Or a hedge. Or an alien monster.  Or all of the above.  And it’s taking over the world.  Originally introduced to America to be used as a hedge, it quickly escaped and began its march across hill and vale, to establish itself wherever it wished. I have decided that maybe, instead of the world ending in fire, it will end in privet and kudzu simply growing together and smothering out all other life, and ..read more

“Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” -Psalm 20:7   Are those words true for you? If you are a follower of Jesus, you would loudly proclaim, “Yes!  Amen! Hallelujah!”  But I fear that, if we have seen anything over the last 6 weeks, it is that far fewer believe this than are proclaiming it.  It has just become a verse in the Bible that helps as long as things are good.   The verse itself deals with the fact that most people believe in what they can see, what they can manipulate, what t ..read more

    Most of the time, when I write a blog, I try to avoid speaking only to the moment in which it is written.  I attempt to write it in such a way that it will be just as relevant 5 years from now. Otherwise, it becomes just like technology, becoming more and more obsolete from the moment of its creation. Some of the things floating around these days will be proven useless or untrue pretty quickly.  But I will make an exception about timeless writing for this moment we live in, and yet I’m going to try to write it so that it can hopefully stand the test ..read more

I must confess, I don’t like Facebook church.   Oh, I know it’s not what we would choose if we were choosing the best way to do church, and that it's just due to this temporary situation.  But there are several reasons I don’t like it.  It's not just the empty parking lot and empty seats.  It's not just the nostalgia of a lifetime of built up memories of Sundays together.  No, there are three reasons I don't like Facebook church.   Number one, it’s because of my vanity.  Now, we’ve been putting our services online for a while, but I never ..read more

Have you ever heard this phrase?  “Put feet on your prayers!”  It has been some time since I used that phrase, and I don’t intend to use it again. I understand the sentiment, and the attempts to get people off their duff, and to live out their faith. But I think we have stripped away the power of God by believing that, even though we pray, we must then make it happen.  No, we trust God’s goodness and His choices.  Yet we are called to pray for the things we need, even though He knows we need them.  Psalm 37:3 tells us to “Trust ..read more

    If you didn’t watch the Oscars last night (which I did not), you missed the fervent worship and evangelistic crusade of the religion of “Deranged Elitist Postmodern Humanism,” complete with their golden idols.  While I did not tune in, I did catch a few snippets here and there this morning in the recaps.  Most of what was getting replay were the social and political comments.  I don’t know what the ratings for the Oscars were last night, but I do know they took the opportunity their platform gave them to try to make converts to their religion.   At first thoug ..read more

Some years ago, when the boys were still in school, we took a family walk across the road into some old grown up fields that the wilderness was slowly reclaiming.  While there was a trail or two, mostly it was just a thicket of brambles and briars, sedge grasses and wild plum.  You never know what you might find when you plow through such places. But I remember our little discovery that day, which, while no big deal, was a little late winter treasure for us. You see, our path led past what used to be an old homestead for some forgotten family.  And as we ..read more

I remember when I got old enough to deer hunt “by myself” with my dad.  I was probably 12 years old.  He wouldn’t be very far away, maybe a couple of hundred yards, and he told me he would be near enough that if I needed him, to just yell.  There was something exciting, and scary, about that big step of being alone.  But I remember that first time, the exciting part soon gave way to the scary part as darkness began to fall.  The sounds I was hearing, or thought I heard, were magnified, and all were ominous.  And then the barred o ..read more

I love Celtic and highland music.  I love to hear bagpipes, and I especially enjoy the soundtrack from the movie, “Braveheart.”  If you ever watched the movie, then you recognize the scene from above.  It was the playing of outlawed tunes on outlawed pipes, at the wake for clan members killed by the treachery of the English. Braveheart was a memorable movie, in spite of some of the historical liberties taken with the timeline of events included in the script.  While the movie supposedly transpires in the 13thcentury, bagpipes were not outlawed in S ..read more

New Year’s resolutions are frustrating things.  And we think, in our ignorance, that our frustration stems from being unable to achieve what we set out to do.  But I believe the frustration stems from some place completely other than whether or not we achieve our arbitrary New Year’s goals.  In fact, it is very likely that, should you achieve all your desired ends that you promised yourself to achieve, the dissatisfaction would continue unabated, and perhaps become even more intense.  You see, we “resolve” on the arrival of the New Year to do better be ..read more