Blog (Page 3)
The Gospel in my Prosperity Chapter of life
Whenever you use the words “prosperity” alongside the word “Gospel” it can be toxic! For those of you who are astute in modern world church lingo, the phrase “Prosperity Gospel” is almost a curse phrase, and for good reason. Let me give a simple explanation. There have been many over the years who have abused the point of the Gospel when it is shared with the world. Some have taken truths, and strained them out to use only partial truths…
How do YOU trust God? (Part I)
The theme of trust is something people in the Christian community think about and talk about all the time. The word, “Trust” appears more than 80 times throughout the Bible. All of us know what is trust, but if someone were to ask us what it is, how would we say it? Some say that to trust is to have a strong faith in something. When faith becomes stronger, it becomes trust. When someone tells us to have trust in…
Does my Passport matter?
As an American, many of us have come to understand that the most important piece of paper document we possess is that American passport. Of course this is very much in the news every day now. I will not be able to address all the questions and issues politically in this article, but this might come to mind when you read it. No doubt, that document is of great importance — humanly speaking. Now let’s stress that last line —…
An Empty House after 22 years!
I am the youngest child of three boys that my parents have. My oldest brother is 4 ½ years old, and my middle brother is 2 ½ years older. I remember vividly when one by one my two older brothers left home for college, and the house got quieter and quieter. My first night at home when my middle brother left was a bit odd – honestly weird, and I remember it well to this day. But for my parents,…
Biblical Grandparenting
Do you know how many percent of the adult US population are grandparents? Take a guess. If you answered one-third, you get a lollipop! Up to one third of all adults are grandparents. That means that if we were to walk about in our cities of Federal Way or Northeast Tacoma, one out of every three adults we see are grandparents. In 1900, there were only 3.1 million people 65 years and older. By 1999, one hundred years later, that…
The Prophet Who Didn’t Die (Part III)
Read Part I Read Part II So, in what way or ways may we say that John the Baptist was Elijah? How is John the Baptist in the New Testament an “Elijah” from the Old Testament? One obvious and fun observation is that they both dressed very similarly. The Bible said in 2 Kings 1.8 that Elijah wore a garment of hair, and a leather belt. Matthew 3.4 said John the Baptist wore a garment of camel’s hair and also…
A Trowel in one hand, and a Sword in the other
I love visual illustrations! Tim (one of our church piano players) has a real gift of being a cartoon style artists. During that long, drawn-out season of Covid a few short years back, many of my sermons were in front of a camera and the only audience was online (I sure hope to never go back to that again!). But one of the funny things that emerged out of that time was that after every sermon that I delivered, Tim,…
The Prophet Who Didn’t Die (Part II)
Read Part I Okay, we know Elijah appeared at Jesus’ transfiguration in the New Testament. Where else did he appear? Check this out. Matthew 16.14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” Matthew 27.47–49 And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, “This man is calling for Elijah.” But the rest of them said, “Let us see whether Elijah will come…
Tim Kim’s Acceptance
As you all know our Church family and our Church leadership has been in conversation with Tim Kim for months now about the possibility of Tim coming as our next Sr Pastor. After months of visits via video conversations and much prayer we had Tim & Cassie and daughter JoJo come in person and spend a week with us in mid-May. Following their visit in person, we had several prayer meetings and discussion times with our LifeWay family asking God…
The Prophet Who Didn’t Die (Part I)
I don’t remember very much what things I did in children’s Sunday School as a little boy. But very bizarrely, I do remember one thing. I remember coloring a drawing one Sunday what looked to me like an old man feeding birds. (Keep in mind this is years before I became a reader of the Old Testament.) I had no clue what was the story behind the picture. I didn’t know why there was a drawing of an old man…
“As for me and my house we will serve the Lord!”
This is a common phrase used on wall hangings for many of us at the front door or in the kitchen. Some of you may have it in your home. It is found in the Old Testament book of Joshua, chapter 24:15. Many of us might be familiar with the quote, but we often don’t know the context of when and why it was written, and we might miss the deeper meaning. Let me give you a simple background to…
Graduating to the Next Chapter of Life
Right now, all over America there are graduation exercises in the months of May and June. We see signs in yards in our community that highlight a High School or college graduates that lives there. There are parties, there are graduation trips, and there are graduation ceremonies. At those ceremonies proud family members and friends watch a loved one as their name is announced, they walk across the stage, get a handshake from the Principal or University president, then are…
The Gospel in every chapter of life
I remember when I was young, I was finally introduced to what we call ‘chapter books.’ Do you remember that? Like most children, I loved being read to by my parents or a teacher. But in those early days all my books had one basic story, one main point, and were loaded with pictures to keep me interested. I couldn’t read the words anyway, but I began connecting the words that were read to me with the pictures I was…
Welcome Tim & Cassie Kim and daughter Joanna
This coming Sunday May 18 is a unique day in our church family. We have invited in some guests that we all need to meet and get to know them. We have talked of this for weeks now, but just in case you didn’t get it, they are coming for a visit to LifeWay and the NW with the possibility that Tim would join our Sr Pastor team in a few months, and eventually take the role of the next Sr…
Mother’s Day 2025
This coming Sunday, May 11, is Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day to all of you. At church this Sunday I’m using this day to begin a new series of messages that somebody might even consider Christian counseling. I would really consider it to be Christian discipleship in all of the different phases of life. Let me explain. I’ve been in some form of ministry either as a youth director for the first few years or as a pastor here now…
Anyone Knows What Happened to Peter?
Two Sundays ago, we completed our study of the Gospel of Mark when Billy gave us a message on the Resurrection. If you recall my message on the introduction to the Gospel of Mark back in September 2024, I said that the whole gospel was likely based on Mark’s conversations with the Apostle Peter. Peter and Mark were close friends, and Peter was likely a mentor to Mark. Peter comes up a lot in the gospel. Peter was the first…
What do we do with the ending of Mark?
As a missions pastor, naturally I am always willing to speak about the Great Commission. So, when Billy asked me to finish up our series in the book of Mark by preaching the Great Commission, it was kind of a no-brainer…at least until I started really working on it. In my head, the Great Commission was a natural follow-up to the resurrection: Jesus is alive, our sins are forgiven, he is victorious—therefore, we should go tell everyone! However, unlike Matthew’s…
The Resurrection
Are you familiar with this old children’s prayer? Now I lay me down to sleep,I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen. The first appearance of this poetic prayer was in Thomas Fleet’s New England Primer in 1737. It soon became widespread in its use in Christian households, and was referred to as one of the “Common Prayers” that can be used by families to teach…
God on the Cross
This Sunday we are studying the story and the message of the Cross that Jesus died on. The Christian Cross might be the most recognizable physical symbol in all the world. You will find in virtually every cemetery in the westernized Christian background world rows and rows of crosses over the burial site of the dead. On our first ever trip to Europe Patty and I took our young kids to plenty of memorable historical sites. The most striking…
God on Trial
While preparing for this Sunday’s story, it made me think of famous trials in history and the sentencing the followed. There is no shortage of interesting ones in history. Here’s some examples: As I have been studying the story out of the Gospel of Mark for this coming Sunday’s message, it led me think about accusations, judgements, evidence and ultimate verdicts from historically famous trials. I then looked up a list of ‘famous trials’ of the past, and believe…
Take this Cup from me!
My dad was an extrovert extraordinaire and often the life of social events. He was deeply dedicated to the cause of Christ, the work of the Church, and had a tremendous love for community at large where he lived. He was my dad first, and the Pastor of the church I grew up in second. Certainly, he had his flaws like the rest of us, but was a really good dad, a well-respected Pastor, and a well-known community figure. He…
“What are you bringing to the Church Potluck Dinner?”
In the early days of our planting this Church, somewhere around 1986, we had several people who had recently come to faith in Christ and had never attended or been engaged with a Church of any kind. Everything we did as a congregational practice was new to them. I have wonderful memories during these years of explaining why we did what we did, but it was the first time I had ever been around people that knew nothing about Church…
New Covenant in Christ’s Blood
Here at LifeWay, we come together and have communion as a body of Christ, once a month. We do this in remembrance of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. During communion, we firstly eat the bread. Then secondly, we drink from the cup. When we take the cup each month, however, have you noticed that Billy, more often than not, recites from Luke 22.20? He says, “Jesus took a cup and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my…
Jesus’ ‘Bloody Parable’ – leading to Jesus’ ‘Bloody week’ ahead
I titled this article in a way to hopefully force you to do a double take – “A Bloody and Violent Parable!” One of the preachers from the past that I enjoy reading used this title for the story that we are focusing on this week. When I saw it, it certainly captured my attention, and I hope it does the same for you. Parables are one of the most popular and wonderful tools of teaching that Jesus used during…
ESL at Park 16
“Reaching unreached peoples is not just about going overseas anymore, and reaching your local context is no longer about reaching people just like you. We have to change our understanding of both in order to understand today’s mission equation.” – IMB News From Our Neighborhood Often, when we discuss local missions, our version of the “Jerusalem” in Acts 1:8, we think of the Federal Way neighborhoods we’re most familiar with. However, a quick study of Federal Way and South King County…