So, I have to preach tomorrow. I haven’t done this for about two years, and I am nervous. As of late, I am usualy hiding behind a guitar. All in all, I am very excited about this… I think I got the preacher bug in my system, and I don’t know the remedy. Anyways this is the sermon: Read the rest of this entry

Coffee and tea are good for the soul. I was once asked to explain this statement, and found that I can not put it into words. However, anyone who knows me knows that I believe this statement with all my heart. I prescribe tea when people are sick, having a bad day, or feeling spiritually dry. I am always up for coffee, and usually require two to three cups to achieve “optimal thinking level”. There is just something about imbibing a warm beverage that draws us into the divine embrace.

I feel the same way about my pipe. People have had a myriad of reactions to my smoking indulgence, but I usually pay it no mind. It is good for my soul to slow down and have a pipe full with my Lord. (J.S. Bach wrote a poem about it.)

Coffee, tea, and my pipe all tend to slow down my day… and in the stillness I find it easier to pray, more natural to converse with the Almighty. I find my self slipping into listening when my mind slows to a leisurely meandering. I find the truth in “be still and know that I am God.” Read the rest of this entry

I don’t ever want to forget the Love of God! It is a fact that He has chosen me… He has extended Life and Light to this lost one. And I have responded. I am not here to debate the election issue, or to have some drama over what is my part in salvation and what is Gods part: all that is for another time. Now I need to remember Gods Love.

It has been the subject of many conversations I have stumbled into lately: evangelism, wrestling with cultural trends, coming to terms with God as king and as friend… and the list goes on. Two weeks ago, I made an old assertion anew: I believe that the foundation of all that God does is Love. Since then, I have been reminded constantly how true this is.

So now, I sit drinking my coffee and thinking: am I offering this Love to people around me? (Let me here label God’s love toward me first as Grace: the action of God on my behalf where I was unable to act.) Too often this gets shoved under the bed, or worse becomes some sentimental feeling crap that is quick to argue “God loves us all and so it will all be ok.” If that is true, then grace means squat, and there is nothing I can offer to the dead men around me… no hope to share with the believer who is bound by lies, doctrinal chains, and the vices of the flesh. Read the rest of this entry

There are twenty four hours in every day. It has been this way for as long as the earth has revolved round the sun. Never has there been more time, and never will there be less. This is what humanity has had to work with, and our task has been to accomplish things within this day long period. But I am bad at using days. I spend too much time convincing my self that I should go and get something done. And I believe my self, but I need to finish this T.V. program first. I rationalize, excuse, and in the end waste day after day after day. It's called apathy, and I would define it as the opposite of love.

I Corinthians 13.4-7 "Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." Read the rest of this entry

A couple of helpful points when trying to make sense of all this ranting mess that seems to vomit forth from my head: most everything I say is going to come from the context of my relationship with God (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost). By no means is this a sanitized relationship, and please accept these precursor apologies if I offend. But I can never stop struggling onward in the maturing of this new thing called “Eternal Life” that has been birthed in me. I am grateful for any and all that read this beautiful mess… and for those of you who dare to venture into the realm of conversation and interaction I applaud you, and will be sure to petition for your knighthood post haste.