Just Another Blog

Fear holds you captive. By this, I mean that when we are afraid, it holds us in a restricted position. What we could have possibly done, we can do no longer, or at least not to the original potential. My wife sometimes shares a story of fear that she has related to the abnormally large cockroaches that we would sometimes encounter when we lived in Hawaii. Truthfully, they were water bugs, but their similarity to a cockroach was remarkable, especially in a dimly lit situation. On one occasion, a water bug had taken up residence in a door frame that she needed to pass through, but the mere fact that it was in that door frame was nearly enough to keep her from going through. She eventually mustered up the gumption and ran through the door. Her fear nearly kept her from doing what she needed to do, even though that particular task was not necessarily a noble one. In comparison, the prophet Jeremiah was given a task by God to warn Israel of the coming judgment of God. The judgment was roote...

I have the privilege of being a part of a wonderful team of pastors and leaders from the MVNU Region who are doing the hard work of preparing for the '24-'27 PALCON cycle. PALCON is the Preachers and Leaders Conference, hosted regionally at different educational institutions around the United States on a three-year cycle. As we begin this next cycle in June of 2024, MVNU will be the first host site for PALCON.  Wednesday evening and Thursday of this past week, I spent time with pastors and leaders who are, for the most part, in the trenches and around the tables, leading in local and district ministry for the Church of the Nazarene. Here are my takeaways from this time together. Pastors are tired. They were tired before 2020, but COVID and the sundry of challenges that it brought have certainly made an impact in many ministries (not all). This sense of tired has been heightened by a significant number of church members and attendees either falling away completely or shifting to...

Ever since finishing my time in the Marine Corps, I have been actively pursuing education. I began with my Bachelor's degree, while still working full-time. After a short break, I moved on to my first Master's degree and then to a second. You might say I am addicted to learning - and this is probably somewhat true. I love to learn, to read, to soak up as much knowledge from others as I possibly can, even if I don't always retain it as I would like.  Over those years of seeking education, there have been a couple of times that I didn't quite hit the mark. In my Master's work, as I have continued to work full-time, raise a family, and do all the things that we do in life, I have had seasons where I fell behind or sickness caused me to be unable to complete the task in front of me.  On one occasion, after battling COVID for a few weeks, I found myself in a place where I simply could not catch up with my schoolwork and I faced a hard decision about what needed to happen...

I recently heard this familiar phrase. It was one that I have heard before, but it had been some time. When I heard it, I nodded my head in agreement as I processed all that this meant. People who get hurt, for any number of reasons, are inclined to then go and hurt someone else. If you say or do something that causes another person to hurt, then there is a high probability - according to this saying - that they are going to go and do the same to someone else.  The more I thought about this phrase over the course of the week, the more I came to realize how it has no place inside the Kingdom mindset or in the life of a Christian. It is certainly true that all of us are subject to being hurt at times in our lives. This hurt comes through the insensitivity of others, through the direct persecution of others, and it often comes through the actions of others that were never meant to harm at all. In some cases, perhaps, the actions of others were meant to help - either your situation or ...