Sometimes I think my best art is my journal writing just between me and God. There is no pressure to be liked. There is no fear of being wrong. There is no insecurity about someone else’s art being better than mine. There is no worry that someone might think I’m cheesy or lame or too cynical or too cheerful. I just say what I’m thinking and feeling, and he hears…
Read MoreWhen I look at the church and the body I belong to in Grayslake, IL, I am so thankful. We are blessed with many kind, hardworking, compassionate brothers and sisters who know the Bible and love Jesus. Then, when I step back and ponder the big “C” worldwide Church, I am…
Read MoreHoly Spirit,
You have descended time and time again
both to confuse and elevate language.
Heavenly Father,
May I find joy
in the ordinary, mundane good works…
As Adam left the Garden
With Eve close by his side,
As inward, hearts were hardened,
And eastward, daylight died…
“Do you think we are going to make it?” Every vocation asks this eventually. When husband and wife see beyond the fig leaves that covered all the shame during courtship and early marriage, one asks “Are we going to make it?” When friendship hits that make-or-break moment, one asks, “Is this friendship worth it?” Some vocations…
Read Morewhen i feel like
i am
less…
Ministry is unimaginable apart from community, not just in a community, but with a community. The rugged individualist, John Wayne, and the celebrity pastor are not models to emulate. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto. Ministry doesn’t begin isolated in the pastor’s study, but in the heart of the Triune Community. The…
Read MoreA long time ago, in old Israel dwelling
There lived a man Jonah, whose story I’m telling.
Now Jonah was special, what they call a prophet,
Who spoke with the Lord, not a person to scoff at…
Ada Calhoun writes in her article, To Stay Married, Embrace Change in the New York Times on 4/21/2017, “Several long-married people I know have said this exact line: ‘I’ve had at least three marriages. They’ve just all been with the same person’.” It is the same in the…
Read MoreHymn text translated by John Mason Neale
Arrangement, additional text & melody by Kristin Schweain
Read MoreLord, on this day, we ask you to forgive us. Forgive us for the times when we have pointed with disdain at our neighbor for their sin while neglecting to see our own. Forgive us for refusing to acknowledge our own biases…
Read MoreIt must have been destiny, or pre-destiny. I didn’t choose Ephesians, it chose me. Romans reached out and beckoned Augustine as those kids on the other side of the hedge sang “tolle lege—Take and read!” Romans had a similar effect on Luther and Lloyd-Jones. Chrysostom lived in John. Spurgeon was…
Read MoreWords & Music by Blake Flattley
Read MoreGod gives us more than we can handle
Be it grief, pain, loneliness, scandal…
Let’s play a game – you’re probably familiar with it. Would you rather…?
Would you rather sit with entrepreneurial leaders advancing innovation or sit in an empty circle of chairs embarrassed, confused, and alone?…
Read MoreThe long-time pastor’s wife at Trinity, Nordis Christenson, famously said, “The Christian life would be easy—if it wasn’t so daily.”
Human nature, according to the good book, is bad. Really bad. Some call it a low anthropology…
Read MoreSix months into my seminary internship year, if you could’ve seen my thought bubble it would read, “I think I’ve said everything that I can think of saying.” I started to worry about where I would find material for decades of preaching. I’m not worried anymore. If I was…
Read MoreBaby Christian was followed closely by Baby Annika who was followed more closely by Baby Samuel. When we found out that Baby Peter was following even closer, the Call from Trinity seemed like a Godsend for a very down-to-earth reason: we would be geographically closer to family.
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