In John 1, the author records the events surrounding Jesus’ invitation for some of his followers to become his disciples.  In Jesus’ day, a Jewish Rabbi would extend invitations to people to sit under his teaching and those people would be considered the Rabbi’s disciples.  Disciple literally means student, and these students would learn under… Read More »

DISCLAIMER: Possible Mental Health Triggers My heart broke this week as I read about the alleged suicide of Emily Gold.  Emily discovered fame as a leader on the Los Osos High School dance team that performed on America’s Got Talent.  She was a bright, energetic girl — a cheerleader and a good student.  She was… Read More »

When I was in 10th grade I had my first fight in school… believe me… it wasn’t something I wanted!  It happened right after my wood shop class.  There was this kid at our school named Horace Hausenbaucher… I’m serious here… I am not making up that name…. Kids in our school called him Orriville… Read More »

Well, I had a very challenging week and because my schedule failed to keep up with the budget of time this pondering is one that I wrote four years ago.  Please forgive me for the double dip, but perhaps the thoughts will be meaningful for some today; even if it is recycled. Once, when Jesus… Read More »

His work was almost completed.  Every prophecy of his coming and life on earth had been fulfilled, and now all that remained were the ones concerning his death and inevitable resurrection.  While fully God, Jesus was also fully human, so it would be only natural for him to have felt apprehension at the coming anguish… Read More »

“What is that smell?!”  If he’d heard it once that day, he had heard it 20 times!  He knew that he smelled… for goodness sake, he had bathed 4 times that morning… and still… yep… he stunk.    He stunk bad!  But it wasn’t his fault… not really… well… maybe, kind of… indirectly, but what could… Read More »

I coached a 4×100 relay team once that was really good.  They were able to place 5th in Division I at the Ohio State Track Championships.  These four guys were fast!  All of their split times were in the low 10.1, 10.2 range.  They should have been no worse than second at State… but that… Read More »

David Bowie sang it… “Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes — Turn and face the strange.”  Anytime change is realized in our life it feels a bit… well… strange.  We can easily become creatures of habit, and we are most comfortable when the status quo is maintained.  We use phrases like “Get out of your comfort zone” to describe how… Read More »

 Well, the Olympics are in full swing now and we are almost a week and a half removed from the opening ceremonies.  If you have missed the controversy over the opening ceremonies, you are never on social media, and you don’t watch conservative news programs.  The organizers of the opening festivities seemed to mock The… Read More »

I still remember the Sunday School classroom and where I was sitting in Lexington, Ky one Sunday morning as the teacher was giving a lesson on asking God to forgive us for our sins.  I believe I was in 4th grade or perhaps 5th. The teacher stressed that when we confess our sins to God… Read More »