Esther attended the Bible school where I was a part of, years ago.  She later married a pastor, and both served faithfully.  Many years ago, her husband suffered a stroke that rendered him unable to continue ministry.  Consequently, she had to step up to the plate to support the famil...

A while back someone asked me, “Did you ever regret your calling?”  What he means was whether I had ever had a second thought about being a minister of the Gospel.  I replied, no.  The only time I wish I were not, was when our children turned away from God.  I wished I were n...

In his book, The Screwtape Letter, C. S. Lewis makes this insightful statement, “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”  I cannot agree more.  That is what I have seen in the...

The Bible is not a science book; it is a book about God, the creator of this vast universe, therein. The Bible tells us that God created this universe, but it does not tell us how exactly that He did it other than through His Word.  But the more science tells us about this universe […]...

Robert Sapolsky, a Stanford University’s neurobiologist, just came up with a new book, Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will. I haven’t read the book yet, but I have read the book’s review and controversy it’s created.  You see, in this book, Sapolsky argues that our behaviors...

Firstly, I would like to wish you a happy anniversary!  By the grace of God this local body of Our Blessed Savior has been standing firmly in San Gabriel Valley for forty-three years. As a fellowship, this church has actually been around a few years longer because when I came to this country in...

The day after she landed, I called Tante Sofia.  As you all know, we have been praying for her since she suffered a fall in Surabaya which resulted in hip replacement surgery.  To make matters worse, days before she flew back to Los Angeles, she suffered an infection.  We were all wor...

In his book, The Art of Forgiving, Lewis Smedes makes a statement that has stayed with me. He says, “We will always be mucking our way through grace.” The word, “mucking” means filthy with mud. What he means is that in the context of forgiving, we will never have a smooth ride. The road to [...

Marriage is not for the faint-hearted; it is for the strong-hearted. But more than just strong-hearted, marriage is for the big-hearted. Marriage is not only filled with pleasurable experiences, but it can also be filled with unpleasant experiences. Thus, it requires a big heart to accommodate all t...

Due to my work in the seminary, I get to meet a lot of preachers—those who want to become preachers and those who have become preachers.  As a result of knowing some of them on a personal level, I also become aware of the struggles that they go through.  One of them is that there [&helli...