Bart Ehrman recently wrote a book entitled: Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth Due to an increase in a popular conception that seeks to argue that the historical Jesus never existed, Dr. Ehrman felt compelled to write a book to: “…convince genuine seekers who really want to know how we know […]
How do you tip? Generously or not generously? A while back I was thinking about my policy on tipping. I do not tip on performance, I tip on grace. I don’t use the amount I tip as a rating system on how well the person served me. I just like to tip generously, regardless of good […]
History of Main Street In the summer of 2003, I chose 39 stories in the Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy), 39 stories in the Writings (Joshua-Nehemiah), and 39 stories in the Gospels and Acts. These 117 Bible stories comprised the core curriculum for Hayward Wesleyan Church’s Sunday school program that we eventually called Main Street (and […]
Back in February, I wrote this after my men’s small group that meets on Tuesday mornings: “I was convicted this morning of a story my friend shared of a guy who would read through the Bible every month. It was a conviction he felt impressed by God to do. “This story reminded of the man […]
My wife and I had a good series of talks on the way to a retreat back in February. I can’t remember the substance of our talks on the way down, but it was nice to have had the time and space to talk. As a married couple who both work nearly full-time and have kids […]
If you were to come across an individual bashing your car with a baseball bat. What would you do? You would probably call the police! What if, when the police officer arrives, the offender apologizes to the officer, and the patrolman looks at you and says: “He’s sorry. Why don’t you just let it go?” […]
Almost 4 years ago, I wrote my first blog post: What are Christians to do? on July 5, 2010. Since then, I have authored 868 blog posts on this blog and 391 over at wesleyankids.org. You could say that I’m rather invested in writing and sharing thoughts and resources. I am inherently an educator, and as a […]
It has been 14 days since I felt in control. 14 days. For the last 14 days I have been recovery from a tonsillectomy. I have not been able to work. I have been quite dependent upon my family for sustenance and space to heal and my partners in ministry to carry on the responsibilities […]
So I guess the story is that a former Yankee player, Robinson Cano, was traded to the Seattle Mariners during the off season for a large 10-year contract (I think it was somewhere around $240 million over the ten years). This was going to be his first game as a Mariner playing in Yankee stadium […]
Do our disciplines/habits reflect what we truly love? In the end, does what we love win? Or do habits/rituals win? Is the old adage what we love wins, really true? I don’t know. I know a lot of people who have things that they HATE ruling their life. Why is that? Does that mean that […]
About a month ago I was able to sit in on a high school health class while they were discussing abstinence. The instructor used a video-based teaching series from a woman named Pam Stenzel. She is hilarious! Here are a couple of quotes I wrote down that I wanted to remember: “Opposites attract in personalities, […]
Who decides what the bad words are? Paul Tripp references an occasion where one of his kids asked this question and he made a couple of distinct categories: There are condemning, judgmental, ungodly words that should never be used. For example, asking God to “damn” someone just shouldn’t be done. It’s wrong. There are other […]
Good Friday service Friday, April 18, 2014 Because of the cross, I am not my own. Jesus often asks people to do things that, in reality, most of us would never do… or we think that Jesus really isn’t saying to do that. He just means it metaphorically. But what if He really means these […]
Recently, Pastor Jeremy and I have had a few provocative discussions in different settings regarding technology and its use among young people in particular. I’ve been in conversation with a professional in the technology field and I wanted to share with this individual a sort of summary of some of our recent conversations and experiences. […]
Friday, Apr 4 – Thursday, Apr 10, 2014 Week #15 Synopsis Relaxing Friday and Saturday Main Street story was on Nehemiah (the follow up to Ezra’s story the preceding week) Monday was a big VBS planning day Realization of a good way to share on social media and reach a wider audience I’ve spent some […]
Friday, Mar 21 – Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 Week #13 Synopsis Benefit for high school girls that got into an accident on Saturday Sermon preparation and delivery: The Squall and the Excorcism Black Light Night event that Sunday night for children’s ministry Had to do some assessment work on our sound, lights and sound control […]
At Youth on Wednesday night, we recently engaged in the story found in Mark 10:46-52 that shares the account of a blind man receiving sight from Jesus. In order to better prepare ourselves to step inside and understand the story, we thought that a little exercise might be in order. Let’s experience blindness, if but […]
Parent’s Guide to Technology I found ParentTechGuide.com to be an incredible resource to share with parents @ Hayward Wesleyan. In fact, I printed a bunch off and they sit in a brochure holder for anyone to take. What we’re finding is that parents just don’t know about the technology that is in the hands of […]
Stories of Elisha 1 Kings 19:19 – 2 Kings 8:6 Last week’s story was centered around the prophet Elijah. In this week’s story, the main character is Elisha. Elisha is Elijah’s successor and this prophet does some fascinating miracles. What’s even more remarkable is the kind of miracles he does and who does similar miracles […]
Story of Elijah 1 Kings 16:29 – 1 Kings 19:18 Last week the kingdom divided. Ten tribes in the north remained Israel, while two tribes in the south, Judah and Benjamin were renamed Judah. Elijah was a prophet to the northern set of tribes, Israel, primarily during the reign of King Ahab, who did evil […]