Love them by praying for them.

As Pastor Joe has recently been pointing out, sometime in the mid to late first century AD, when an autocratic pagan emperor ruled the Mediterranean world, the Apostle Paul wrote this instruction to Timothy, who was leading a young christian church Asia Minor:...

Should we stop saying, “Jesus is Lord”?

A friend named Kelly sent me two screen shots of (I think) Twitter posts from this week. One said: “As a pastor, I want to encourage folks to avoid toxic theology today (and every day). “No matter what happens, Jesus is King” is a form of faith that...

We Are Pre-Political.

With the way things have been for most of 2020, you could be forgiven for thinking that politics have totally taken over the world. But followers of Jesus should push back on this sentiment. Is everything in life political? People will be voting tomorrow. That, of...

Hope Transcends Despair

It isn’t news to say that right now there are a lot of people who are offering solutions for everything wrong with the world. Christians, of course, have their own prescriptions–what needs to change, what needs to happen. And, if you haven’t noticed,...

That Pinch of Incense

You may have heard that, in the years when the New Testament was being written, and beyond, one of the issues Christians faced was the requirement, by the government of Rome, to offer a pinch of incense on an altar dedicated to the deity of the Roman emperor. From one...

Beyond Agreeing to Disagree

Do you ever feel like the opportunity for Christian witness is closing down—like the doors that might have been cracked open are slamming shut, as we try to find ways to spread the message of Christ with people we know? Check out this “boldness and...