As we start the new year we might be asking, “What will I do?”  We might think about traveling or visiting friends and relatives or even going on a mission trip.  All of them are good; we should do them; but we do them with this in mind: In a bigger scheme, life is about […]...

On October 15, 2025, Jim Morrison became the first person to have skied down the north face of Mt. Everest.  The nine thousand feet slope is supposed to be the steepest, hence, the most dangerous part of Everest’s thirty-thousand feet high.  Jim Morrison did it in four hours!  When ...

Only a handful of people knew who Lettie Burd was; even to this day only a few know who she is.  But many know or at least have heard of the name Mrs. Charles E. Cowman through the devotional book she compiled, Streams in the Desert.  Lettie was married to Charles E. Cowman; felt called [&...

Next Sunday will be the last Sunday of the year!  Yes, not month but year.  I feel like I haven’t written enough of 2025, but now I’ll have to write a new year, 2026. I am sure we will look back on 2025 with mixed emotions; some will look back favorably, but some not so […]...

Patricius was just a 16-year-old boy when raiding Irish warriors took him from his native England.  He was sold to an Irish chieftain who, then, sent him to shepherd his flocks.  There in the hills, alone, he thought of the Christian God his parents believed in, and there he began to pray ...

Starting from today till the last Sunday of the month, we will shift our attention to Christmas-themed messages.  I give the title of our new series, “His Name is Jesus.” I hope these messages will speak to us as we celebrate the first coming of Our Lord Jesus to the world. As I write this,...

Dieter Zander was once arguably one of the best worship leaders in the country.  He used to serve at Willow Creek Community Church in a suburb of Chicago, along with John Ortberg.  In his book, Soul Keeping, Ortberg shares that the church had to literally stop singing certain songs when Za...

In his book, Run with the Horses, Pastor Eugene Peterson gives us a vivid illustration of prayer as commonly practiced.  It’s like going to a restaurant with somebody where we’ll order food and drink from the waiter.  At the end we might say thanks for a good meal or good service; and ...

To encourage young folks who are struggling with directions in their lives, I sometimes share my journey from being someone who had no clue what I wanted to or could do, to becoming a counselor, and in the end, a pastor.  Out of high school I did not know what I should choose as a […]...

Last week God called home a friend in ministry, Marojahan Sijabat. After ministry in Batu, Malang, he experienced acute abdominal pain; so, he was taken to a hospital in Malang, which subsequently sent him to a hospital in Surabaya.  The doctors found abdominal blockage but before they could pe...