I read Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost For His Highest this morning, as I do most mornings. I love the sheer honesty of his insights. In today’s entry he comments on Revelation 1:17: “And when I saw Him, I fell at his feet as dead.” “It may be that like the apostle John you know Jesus Christ intimately, when suddenly He appears with no familiar characteristic at all, and the only thing you can do is to fall at His feet... Read more

In Elie Wiesel’s book, Night, he relates a story of a man called Moishe. They would have theological discussions now and then. Moishe asked Elie who he prayed to and why. Elie asked Moishe the same question in return. Moishe said, “I pray to the God within me for the strength to ask Him the real questions” (p. 5). Yes, the courage to ask the real questions! So, I’m just asking questions… questions that have haunted me for years and... Read more

I’ve been thinking a bit about ministry and what it means to be a pastor. I keep asking myself the question: “Is it possible for all kinds of different people to dwell together in unity?” That is, can a particular local church be made up of a wide variety of people, and yet be united? Can there be true unity in vast diversity? I’m not just talking about diversity in appearance or superficial issues, but diversity in beliefs, theology, and... Read more

“Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it has sprung from a wish dream. The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and try to realize it. But God’s grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be... Read more

“… the cry of the sceptic and the defeated is revealed in Jesus’ own agony at Gethsemane and Golgotha. The choice to believe in the sovereignty of divine love, and to consent to the forgiveness of all, is much more hidden in the mystery of divine grace… The failure to recognize the difficulty of faith is, finally, a failure to comprehend the evil in the world with sufficient depth. The evil in the world, revealed on the cross, so hides... Read more

On Monday night I watched the season finale to “Grey’s Anatomy”. I’ve NEVER watched the show before, but for some reason I watched this particular episode. At one point in the show, a heart surgeon is performing a heart-transplant on a patient. The heart has been successfully sewn into the patient’s chest and the patient seems to be doing well. Now the heart has to be massaged or shocked into action. She massages the heart. They shock the heart. Nothing.... Read more

I’m reading Miroslav Volf’s FREE OF CHARGE: GIVING AND FORGIVING IN A CULTURE STRIPPED OF GRACE (Zondervan, 2005). So far so good. Here’s a couple of related quotes that I think are quite profound. First: “…our images of God are rather different from God’s reality… God is different from what we conceive… we unwittingly reduce God’s ways to our ways and God’s thoughts to our thoughts. Our hearts become factories of idols in which we fashion and refashion God to... Read more

Welcome everyone! I’m hoping you will like my new website that includes my paintings, my blog, my music, and my me! Enjoy. If you’re here because of my email invitation, thanks for coming. If you are here by other means, well, welcome to you too! Sign me up and keep checking in for daily updates. Read more

This painting depicts the solitary feeling of existence, and sometimes how we feel isolated and alienated from all beings, including God. This does not mean it is so, but felt. When I am out at night time for a walk underneath the stars, I may feel very much alone, and indeed be alone, but those are the times I have felt closest to God. Read more