Blog (Page 4)
For God knows the Plans He has for Us
This past Sunday, the LifeWay family honored Billy and Patty for their 40 years of service to God. Sometime this month, or last month, forty years ago, when God called them to plant a church here in the Pacific Northwest, they said yes. I thank God for how hard and how focused they have worked to bring hope to many Washingtonians living in darkness. Tradition says that the prophet, Jeremiah, served God for forty years too (I am not at…
A Remembrance Walk among Heroes of the Faith
Part 1 of a few more to come. Last Sunday June 30th, the family at LifeWay honored Patty and me for our 40th anniversary of being here at LifeWay/Palisades. As many of you know we were The Church at Palisades for 19 years, then LifeWay for the last 21 years. We came together with Calvary Community Church in 2003 and re-formed and moved forward as LifeWay. That too is a wonderful story that needs to be told sometime. But either…
Where are the Promises of God when the Crops Fail?
Last weekend several of us as church leaders took a group of wonderful teens to camp in a remote part of Washington, a ranching/logging/mining part of the state called Wauconda. As part of our “Camp Wauconda” long weekend experience we joined in worship at the Wauconda Community Church. It was delightful. We met some wonderful Christ followers, and even a couple of the families joined us in the afternoon for a picnic at the nearby lake. You might wonder what…
The Promises of God: 2 Corinthians 12.9–12
Officially welcome to summer and the longest days of the year! I love it! But it means for us at LifeWay a shift in what we will be teaching on Sunday’s during the summer. Of course we just went through 30+ Sunday’s in Romans from September to last Sunday. Beginning this Sunday, June 23, we will begin our summer series called… “The Promises of God.” Every Sunday from June 23 to Labor Day, (11 Sunday’s), we will focus on a…
The Gospel Truth: The Final Words of Farewell
This time of year is graduation speech time. There are some fun graduation speeches, some ‘boring and lame’ speeches for sure, but occasionally there are some amazing graduation speeches to challenge and charge graduates. But I think the best speeches are the farewell speeches because they are the ones that lay out the most critical things to live for. Dwight Eisenhower gave a great one when leaving the presidency. George Washington gave a great speech when he left office. Paul,…
Are All Sins Equal? (Part II)
Read Part I So, all sins are equal because any sin, large or small, cuts us off completely from a relationship with God. Is that it? Not so fast. It is a true statement one sin causes us to have zero relationship with God, no matter how big or how small is the sin, and so sin is sin. But the Bible seems to also say another thing. Actually, it seems to also say the opposite thing. I know it…
Are All Sins Equal? (Part I)
I think back to the many years when I was a young man, and not yet a believer in Christ. One day, I heard a Christian person say that all sins were equal. In those days, I didn’t ask many questions and I kept what I heard in my heart. But deep down inside, I knew he was wrong because I had already made up my mind there were different degrees of sins (back then, I called them “evils”) in…
The Roman Road to Salvation
2000 years ago the Roman Empire dominated everything that was Europe, North Africa and the fringes of western Asia. This Empire was unlike anything that the world had ever seen, and in some ways it has not seen anything like it sense. It amazes me that we have been studying this incredible New Testament letter that we casually call the “Book of Romans,” and it was to a Church family there in that was living out the Body of Christ…
Why Can’t I?
One of the most popular and repeated phrases of a young child when they become around 5 years old is….. “WHY?” When you tell a child to stop playing on the high bars of the playground, their response is… “Why?” When you tell them to stop being so loud when you are a restaurant, their response is… “Why?” When you tell them to eat all their vegetables instead of the ice cream, their response is… “Why?” Even as a teenager…
Accept the One Who is Weak in Faith
Once upon a time inside the church in Rome in the 1st century, there were the Jewish Christians and there were the Gentile Christians. The Jewish Christians were those who were ethnically Jews, but they had come to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. On the other hand, the Gentile Christians were non-Jewish, albeit also people of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who used to be people from all kinds of beliefs, and religious systems. We learn from…
How Then Shall We Live as Citizens of This Nation as a Christ Follower?
There is a bit of common bit of advice that is passed around every year at Thanksgiving time. Now I realize that it is May and we are all ready for summer, but let’s think about what happens at Thanksgiving time for many of us. It is a season when we gather with family that often we have not seen each other for some time, so we do a lot of catching up with one another. There are many topics…
Our Commitment to Authenticity
Romans 12:9-21 Recently Patty and I took off some time to celebrate her birthday by going to the beautiful state of Hawaii. Of course we had a grand and beautiful time on that gorgeous Big Island. We swam a lot, snorkeled the corral coves, hiked many of the hills, and we shopped! One of the days we took a long hike that began about 1000 feet above sea level and proceeded down the lava flow areas all the way down…
Commitment to a Higher Calling
Romans 12:1-8 We are now on what I have categorized as the last section of the book of Romans. This whole year we have studied Romans and Our Calling this series the gospel truth. The theology of what the gospel is in full detail is so well explained in the 1st 11 chapters of the book of Romans. But around the 12th chapter of this amazing letter in our New Testament we begin this section which is often considered to…
Romans 10:14–21
In January 1925, Nome Alaska was very, very cold! Now this should be of no surprise to anyone as Nome is that little Arctic town that sits out near the Bering Sea and essentially looks across to the far East tip of Russia. It is a native Alaskan settlement that expanded a great deal in the early 20th century due to the gold rush and other economic reasons. But a crisis had emerged in this Arctic village. And it is…
Our Responsibility When There Is God’s Sovereignty
Quite soon after I made a decision for Christ, a pastor friend told me about a debate going around in the Christian world called the Arminian versus Calvinist debate. I don’t want to go too deep doctrinally here, but the Arminian position emphasizes free will, believing that individuals have the choice to accept or reject God’s salvation. On the other hand, the Calvinist position emphasizes God’s sovereignty, believing that God predestines certain individuals for salvation. The way my friend said…
The Mystery of God revealed
When Apollo 8 was launched in December 1968 it was the very first ever manned flight to reach the moon and they orbited the moon on that mission. They did not land on the moon (that was Apollo 11 in July 1969). But it was the first ever to have flown out of earth’s low orbit and circle the moon, which they did 10 times and were within 60 miles of its surface! This mission set the stage for the…
“If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31
When the Seattle Seahawks have their season opener this coming September at Lumen Field, everyone in the downtown region will know there is a game about to happen because the Seahawk blue jerseys, shirts, hats, and even face paint will be everywhere! The shouts from the crowds of thousands of people who were all strangers to one another just an hour before, are now all yelling in unison — “SEA —- HAWKS!” They are all high fiving one another and…
An Easter Poem
A triumphant ride into the townJesus was greeted with the cheersHosanna! proclaimed the peopleOur king is finally here. Now he stands in front of PilateNo longer came the CheersNow changed to Shouts of crucify!The Angry crowds did jeer Then, on the cross, our Lord did hangIt is finished! His last cryHe suffered unimaginable agonyAll for you and I For three long days and three long nightsIn the grave, his body layThose who loved and knew himThought he was there To…
What Would You Paint Jesus to Look Like?
About ten years ago Patty was asked to paint about 25 portraits of famous people who would be considered ‘peace makers’ in the world. Individuals who stand out as people who brought something better for a nation and the world. She was asked to do this by a missionary who served in a difficult place in Asia to be put into a coffee shop there. It was actually called the “Peace Café.” The intent was to foster conversations among the…
Suffering Through the Pain
One of my favorite movie series is “Band of Brothers.” It came out about 20 years ago and has been branded as one of the most realistic views of the challenges in war time. It follows the story of real American WWII veterans from the D-Day Normandy invasion into France all the way to the end of the war. I know that Army bases when training soldiers actually require their troops to watch this series to teach them lessons of…
When An Unbeliever Prays (Part II)
Read Part I An unbelieving person clicks “send” on his screen, and submits a prayer request to God. What will you say happens next? Does the email come through into God’s inbox? Does God even see the “unread” email? If God sees the email, does he open it? If he opens it, does he read it? If he reads it, what does he do with it next? Is God aware that the email came from an unbeliever, and therefore he…
Lost and Found
We have a ‘lost and found’ box in the church lobby. You might think at first glance that there are many different kinds of items in this ‘lost and found’ box. Bibles are the most common. But there are hats, gloves, glasses, notebooks, coats, umbrellas, and plenty of other common items that get left behind with no name on them and are unclaimed. But if you really think about it, there are only two kinds of items… there are LOST…
When An Unbeliever Prays (Part I)
As most of you know, Jenny and I became proud first-time grandparents last year. Oliver (Ollie) was born at 27 weeks. He has spent already four months in the NICU, and is still in a NICU today. Jenny and I are so grateful God has given us a church family so we don’t have to walk on this journey alone. You have not stopped asking either of us about Ollie every Sunday. You have prayed, and continue to pray for…
The Amazing Romans Chapter 8
I have always considered Romans chapter 8 as one of the favorite chapters in the Bible for me. That’s honestly difficult to truly evaluate because I don’t want to lose any of the chapters. They are all God’s Word and inspired. They are all profitable. But undeniably there are a few that really stand out to me and just have always spoken to me in a very special way. This Sunday we are going to begin the first of four…
Preparing for CIC Commitment Sunday
Not unlike the GIC week in the fall (GLOBAL Impact Celebration) we are using this coming Sunday morning March 3 as a commitment Service to our CIC (COMMUNITY Impact Celebration) week at LifeWay. There are some differences though – as well as some strong similarities. The differences: So what is unique about our CIC commitment? As you prepare for this coming Sunday morning, I ask you to read and contemplate from a couple of important places in the book of…