I received the following email forwarded from a fellow-pastor. His friend’s daughter is with a medical mission team from Missouri serving in Haiti. It is an unfiltered first-person account of the human misery and suffering going on following the devastating earthquake. Pray for her and the other medical personnel who are absolutely overwhelmed yet serving heroically in the name of Christ. If you feel compelled to give, please visit the “Helping Haiti” icon on our home page.



You just would not believe the things i have seen.  people everywhere with missing limbs. 2 babies died today.  one man died with a pulmonary embolism (blood clot) bc they ran out of heparin.  our team brought heparin.  they are sick and lying on stretchers and bleeding. one nurse broke down today and said that last tuesday they were just cutting people limbs off that were crushed and they had nowhere to dispose...

As a husband and father of three boys I try to do my portion of the tasks that fall under the heading of  “housework.” It has taken years of training, but I have to admit it is nice to have a clean house. Problem is that when you have three boys (four if you count me) who live under the same roof, the house simply will not stay clean for very long. I’ve concluded that the only way to keep a clean house is to get all the cleaning done, then immediately take the whole family on vacation and leave town! A clean house is good, but obsessive orderliness sucks all the life and joy out of a home.



There is little-known Hebrew proverb that says: “An empty stable stays clean, but no income comes from an empty stable” (Proverbs 14:4 TLB). Another translation puts it this way: “Where there are no oxen, there is no grain; abundant crops come by the...

The massive devastation and loss of life in the already desperate nation of Haiti is mindboggling. At this early point in the catastrophe, damage assessment and loss of life are still unknown, but we know it will be incredibly high and beyond our ability to grasp. My 10 year old came home from church last night moved with compassion wanting to do something to help. I suggested that we find out what groups are already on the ground in Haiti and then send a donation. He said, "No, I want to take it there myself."

We settled for making an online donation for immediate disaster relief to World Vision and praying for Haiti before bedtime.

In time, after the assessments are completed and order restored, there will be numerous opportunities to give and to go. Right now, we must do what we can. We will try to provide updated information on this website of the ways you can best give, help, and...

 

Most people celebrate at least two Christmases—Christmas with immediate family and Christmas with extended family. It may even be as many as four Christmases if you’ve had divorced parents and step-parents added to the mix—hence the movie by the same name. As for me, I’ll be celebrating Christmas with my wife and children, followed by a long trip to Mississippi where we will make the Christmas circuit through my parents and in-laws homes. So that makes three Christmases for me.

What’s been on my mind this Advent season is the stark fact that we are all confronted with two Christmases whether we realize it or not. There’s the cultural Christmas experience complete with Santa, reindeer, snow, warm fuzzy Christmas songs, and most importantly the giving and receiving of gifts.

Then there’s the Christian Christmas experience as told through the Gospels of Luke and Matthew of God sending God’s own son in the form of a baby in the most unconventional, unpredictable way imaginable. Nobody expected it to happen this way. Messiah was to come, everyone thought, amidst royalty and privilege and power. Of course, according to the Christian tradition, it didn’t happen that way at all. God came from way beyond left field. It took the intervention of angels to convince folks that it was really true.

...

I read in this morning’s Raleigh News & Observer about a recently released report from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. It further confirms the new realities facing Christians, churches, and church leaders. We must all wake up and smell the blended faith!

In a nutshell, it is a “build-your-own-religion” approach—much like building your own ice-cream sundae. Here are a few interesting thoughts from this study to consider:         

One-third of Americans say they regularly or occasionally attend religious services at more than one place.

It is now the norm for Americans to blend multiple religious beliefs and practices--from Christianity to Buddhism to New Age.

 Pop culture and the Internet and are probably more powerful teachers than Sunday School teachers (Scot Thumma- Hartford Institute for Religion Research). These survey...

I recently officiated my thirteenth funeral of 2009. I’ve lost track of how many funerals I’ve presided over during my 14 years as a pastor. But I have noticed some changes. In general, funerals have changed alongside the changing nature of our culture. As each new generation becomes less churched, and less influenced by organized religion, these changes begin to emerge in some of the unconventional practices we see at funerals.

Gone are the days when one might assume the loved ones of the dearly departed have a sense of what is appropriate for a funeral—committing a sacred creation back to the Creator and looking forward with Christian hope in the resurrection.

This is especially true when it comes to the selection of music. I’ve heard such sacred artists as Bette Midler, Brooks & Dunn, Eric Clapton and Elvis (at least Elvis had a sacred...

Last weekend, my family gathered around the big screen TV and watched the Disney movie “Earth.” It was quite spectacular... and there were no animated characters. It was just the raw wonderful world of nature. During the movie the voice of James Earl Jones mentioned how different the earth would be if it were not titled at an angle of 23.5 degrees. It set me to thinking.



With my quick Google research I discovered that 23.5 (or to be exact 23.43) is the angle of degrees that the earth is tilted on its celestial axis, or the angle the earth is positioned from pole to pole. 



While that may appear to be of little significance, this number determines much of life on our planet. Without the 23.5 degree tilt our earth would be vastly different. Birds would have no reason to migrate; plants would grow at different times and in exotic...

An Associated Press story in the Raleigh News & Observer reported this week that the decline in U.S. newspaper circulation is accelerating,  Figures released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show that average daily circulation dropped 10.6 percent in the April-September period from the same six-month span in 2008.

 

The report went on to say that although newspaper sales have been declining since the early 1990s, the drop has accelerated in recent years. The accelerated change is partly because newspapers have stopped serving harder-to-reach areas and have limited circulation to their core regions. However, in many cases, people simply aren't buying print copies as much as they used to, given the abundance of free news on the Internet. (newsobserver.com 10/28/09)

 

It’s just another sign of the times. The way we report and receive news is drastically changing....