He was born into a missionary family, a home where one would think he might learn the love of God.  Instead, his strict and demanding father taught him that faith is about performance.
He would hear the cannibalistic tribesmen discuss whether they would kill his parents.  His understandable youthful response was to create emotional distance from [...]

For those of you who haven’t been there, a son’s wedding is an amazing experience.  (I’m sure a daughter’s wedding is as well, but that is still future for us.)    This past weekend on Bald Head Island our Phil took Mary Catherine as his wife.  My  enjoyment was up close and personal not only as [...]

“Don’t waste your suffering,” I said in a recent sermon as we reflected on Joseph.  Joseph’s transition from a spoiled, self-centered, arrogant adolescent to a dependable, mature, faithful adult was occasioned by suffering – the murder plot of his own brothers that became instead a trip through the desert to the slave auction block.  His suffering changed [...]

If it weren’t for the chapter title, “The Gathering Dark,” you wouldn’t know from chapter 2 of The Shack that anything bad is on the horizon.  The chapter tells the story of Mack’s camping trip with his three children to the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon.
“That evening, as he sat between three laughing children watching [...]

Yesterday in my sermon I recommended a book, The Shack (William P. Young) for reading.  This novel tells the story of Mack, who experiences a “great sadness” in his life.  Then he receives an invitation to spend a weekend with God.  The author recounts numerous, lengthy conversations between Mack and the Father, Son, and Holy [...]