Complaints in the Desert

This is a manuscript of a sermon I preached for seminary. What I learned here has always stuck with me. I came across it today because I was thinking about the lessons we learn in the desert. The ways in which God uses the dry times, the times of waiting, the times of Advent, to teach us. Without the desert the Israelites would not have been ready for the promised land. It was those years of wandering in the desert that taught them how to trust in God. As Christians I think we move to quickly into the hope of Jesus. We don't learn the lesson of the dry time: that our present circumstances are not an indication of favor or abandonment by God. It is not God who changes, only our willingness to follow Him.

An Open Letter to Survivors

This letter is dedicated to all those who in the last year have shared with me their stories. To those of you that have trusted me with some of the deepest hurts in your life. To those of you who years later are now able to look back and find something redeeming about your story. To those of you who are still in the midst of confusion about what the future holds. I have heard you. And I'm sorry.

When Salvation Feels Like Condemnation

Last weekend I preached a hard sermon. It wasn't hard because I had to do in-depth research. It wasn't hard because the passage was particularly confusing. It was hard because it was truth that people don't like to think about let alone hear. It was hard because it called people to change.

I could spend this post writing about all the ways that the sermon was hard for me. I could talk about the consequences of hard conversations on the person who initiates that conversation. But the reality is that more often than not we are on the receiving end of hard conversations. This is not a post for those thinking about having hard conversations. This is a post for those who have heard a hard truth and don't know how to respond.

5 Things to Learn from Jules Woodson and #churchtoo

I am not a victim. I have never been abused. In fact, being a pastor, I have more in common with the abusers than with the victims. On behalf of the church I want to apologize. Apologize for the silence of the church. Apologize for generations of Pastors who thought more about their position than victims. Apologize for churches who cared more about reputations than displaying the nature of God. If you have been abused this is not for you. This is a blog for the church. The church that has been silent for too long.

Deliver Us From Evil

The last few months have been alarming. Hurricane Maria has left Puerto Rico without power to this day. California has had several fires and now a mud slide that left at least 17 dead. In New Jersey we had a "bomb cyclone" that left the east cost covered in snow. North Korea gets ever closer to nuking the world. Just last month suicide bombers took out a church in Pakistan during a children's Christmas program.

Evil is part of the sinful world that we live in. There are times that the world seems so dark we cannot imagine how God can be in control. We wonder if there is anything that can save us from the evil in this world. Every day we hear of another case of sexual assault and abuse of power. Some of us have experienced very real evil in our own homes. When we pray for deliverance from evil often we think of immediate evil. But what Jesus was teaching us was about so much more.