Pain from a broken leg keeps us from doing more damage to the injury. So we hobble to ER, wait for hours, and then get it casted, which enables healing. We don’t all break our legs, but we do sin. Perhaps, just wondering, but does guilt serve a similar role spiritually for those times? Can it pain that leads to spiritual healing?…
Read MoreWorshipping While Riding
As Jerry and I headed east on our 2022 East Coast trek in May, I had low expectations for the Kansas section of I-80. My wife grew up east of Dodge City, and my midsummer or winter visits birthed memories of dry and barren, with no real hills. But our third day was Sunday and I wanted to worship, so I popped on Mercy Me, and I focused God while riding. Gentle hills emerged and in May, the fields…
Read MoreWorship's Courage
Some wit once compared the church to Noah’s ark, we couldn’t stand the conditions inside if it weren’t for those outside. That haunts me. Research reveals that over half of self-identified Christians have no connection with a larger group of followers—meaning we may have more Christians outside the church than inside. A number of my friends and family, once deeply involved in a local body, have chosen to stop. The church that Jesus died to create.
Maybe we need to explore the best reason to...
Read MoreWorshipping Worship: The Ultimate Adultery
A while back, a Facebook friend and fellow writer, Steve Hutson, posted an article that critiqued much of modern worship. Some valid points, some not. The resulting discussion motivated me to further explore worship. If we are to follow Jesus, what we worship and how we worship will drive the depth of our faith. At its core, worship celebrates the reality that…
Read MoreFresh Cliches
Fresh clichés. An obvious paradox, right? Maybe not. I wonder about some clichés that often get ignored. Sunday worship as a fresh start on the first day of the week. A chance to get lost in worship, to acknowledge our shortcomings, to gain forgiveness. So true it’s become a cliché. But as a cliché for that, Sunday’s not enough. If I wait until Sunday for refreshing, I can accumulate…
Read MoreWhy Worship Together?
Some lies have more truth than falsehood, which merely increases their danger. Such as, “I love God, but I can worship him just as well at the beach or the mountains.” I tend to agree, mountain trips often provide some of my best worship. Immersed in the transcendent beauty of God’s creation, away from the overpowering touch of man, my ego shrinks as I get lost in God. But if the truth in that quote becomes an excuse for not being in gathered weekly worship, then it becomes a dangerous lie. We eliminate part of what God designed worship to be. We decrease our godliness. Our preferences have more value…
Read MoreRelentlessly Seeking
In an almost New Testament manner, an earlier church we attended had a satellite campus at a winery east of Temecula. The pic above shows the view the gathered believers have during worship. This last Sunday, just after the sermon began, a small, yellow-breasted bird flew up to the window, beating his wings trying to get in. Tiring, he flew back to a grapevine branch, rested, then resumed his attempts to enter God's presence. After a few moments he tired…
Read MoreTranscendence--In All the Wrong Places
One of my closest lifetime friendships was forged in high school and college. Ken and I then both followed Jesus, both left, only I returned. Ken has trekked the world. His innate curiosity and hunger for knowledge has led him to many worship events, in many faiths. During one of our conversations on his yearly trip back to the states, he offered, “Worship is funny. I visit my parents’ evangelical Christian worship, or that of my Muslim friends, and they all look the same.” Ken saw an outer similarity, but missed…
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