The development of the candy cane took a few hundred years. Before the invention of the modern pacifier, parents used to give their babies unflavored white sugar sticks to suck on. During the 1670's a German choirmaster had the sugar sticks bent into a shepherd's staff and passed out to children attending the Christmas services. This holiday custom spread throughout Europe. About 1900 the white candy cane received its traditional red stripes and peppermint flavoring. At the same time the lege...

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. Galatians 6:1

It is quite natural, and even spiritual, to feel sorrow and heaviness when we see the professed followers of Christ walking in the ways of the world. Our first impulse may be to go straight to them and upbraid them indignantly, but such methods are seldom successful. The heat in our spirit may not be from the Holy Spirit, and if it is not then it can very well do mo...

All of a sudden, it’s a big deal to be offended.

This whole Starbuck’s Red Cup fiasco has gotten out of hand.  If you do not know what I am talking about – good for you!  Basically some “Christian” folk are upset with Starbucks because they have taken their regular decorated “Christmas cups” and gone to a plain red cup.  Some people are demanding a boycott because the coffee shops have declared war on Christmas.  Others are all upset, because these people are all upset.  It can...

I was asked to deliver the invocation at an event that brought representatives from various NV towns together a while back.  After I had done so, someone from some other city asked me why I did what I had done.  I told her I was the Chaplain for the City Fire Department and I was asked.  She told me that it was inappropriate for me to pray at a government function.  I suggested “the separation of church and state?”.  She replied yes, religion (any religion) does not belong in government. ...

My letters get published on the Church’s Facebook site, the website, and on Twitter.  Last week’s letter got a lot of attention.  I found myself sitting at my desk this week with stage fright.  “How am I going to top that?”

Who says I have to?  What exactly did I do differently than I did last week?  Why am I so concerned about how people react to my work?  Certainly I want people to like what I do.  It is natural to expect that some of what I do will change a person’s life.  Howev...

I received a call several years ago and the caller told me they were looking for the perfect church.  I wished them luck and asked if they found it would they please call me back.  When they asked me why I responded that way, I told them that this church is not perfect, nor do I ever expect it to be.  It was perfect once.  Then people started coming (including myself), and from that moment, “perfect” went out the window.

I admire people who come to small, struggling churches (like ours)....

Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. 2 Thessalonians 2:9

There are areas of Christian thought—and because of thought then also of life, where likenesses and differences are so difficult to distinguish that we are often hard put to escape complete deception!

Throughout the whole world error and truth travel the same highways, work in the same fields and factories, attend the same churches, fly in the same planes and shop in the sa...

... In everything by prayer and supplication... let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:6

To "accept the universe" does not mean that we are to accept evil conditions as inevitable and make no effort to improve them. So to teach would be to cancel the plain teachings of the Scriptures on that point.

Where a situation is contrary to the will of God, and there are clear promises concerning it in the Scriptures, it is our privilege and obligation to pray and labor to bring abou...

I have become aware of a couple different circumstances lately that need to be shared:

Brian came to me needing someone to help at the Men’s Camp next week.  It was not an area that I personally could help with, but I knew of someone here at church that could.  I called that person, explained the situation and they told me they would pray about it and get back to me soon (good answer!).  A couple days later, Brian called asking if I had heard anything.  I told him I had not.  Just then ...