Christa and I went to a late morning showing of Noah yesterday at the West Acres Cinema in Fargo. Honestly, it was better than I anticipated, and yet it fell well short of what it should have been. Some of the positive things about the movie, things that I frankly thought filmmaker Darren Aronofsky did READ MORE
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When Floods Come
Yesterday, March 28, 2014, marked the fifth anniversary of the crest of the record-smashing Red River Valley Flood. Our home, located as it is in the Oakport Township just north of Moorhead, Minnesota, and Fargo, North Dakota, was right in the middle of one of the “ground zeroes” that were randomly scattered up and down READ MORE
Four Simple Reflections on Worship
This past weekend I had a chance to welcome guests to Bethel Church’s Valley Worship Arts Conference. Pastor Andy Kvernen, one of my ministry partners and Bethel’s marvelous worship pastor, had asked me to take a few moments and share some thoughts on the impact of worship on the local church. Much could be shared, READ MORE
“With You I Am Well Pleased”
When was the last time you really, truly felt loved and appreciated? Like you were special? That someone, anyone, really delighted in . . . well . . . you? The ancient Israelites wrestled with these questions. They felt forgotten. Abandoned. Lost and desperate. Isaiah 63:19 gives a hint of this, at which place their READ MORE
To See Clearly
Arriving at Bethsaida proved pivotal for the disciples and Jesus. We get this sense of things reading Mark 8:22 and following. Take it in below: And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and READ MORE
The Awful Pattern of Sin-Management
A simple review of the center of John’s gospel account gives us a glimpse into the awful drama of sin-management: Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary READ MORE