Of course there are various odds and ends to any and all callings and endeavors, and these sundry miscellaneous bits and pieces of the work week can be interesting in their own right …but what sort of Emphatic Pastoral Ponderings does the Holy Spirit have the parsons of ECPC working on these days? Pastor Ginn […]
As many of you know – I regularly partake of a publication called Critique. Please visit their website (click the word “Critique” in the previous sentence) and donate money to them so that I can keep receiving their publications cheap of charge. Why do I like Critique? I am lousy at unhurriedness, and the folks […]
Once upon a time there was a group of important, powerful, and well-groomed men who believed in Jesus, but for fear of pretentious religious performers – they hid their fascination and agreement with Jesus. They were “sensibly concerned” with the risks of being ostracized and shunned by the jury of their peers (for they loved […]
Have you ever heard of Hans Ur Von Balthasar? He was a Swiss rich kid educated k-12 by Benedictine monks and then did his higher-learning in Austria and Germany. Eventually Hans got involved in a Jesuit community in Deutschland (Jesuits were outlawed in Hans’ homeland until 1973 …I’m not precisely sure why the Swiss didn’t […]
What fuels “they argued with one another about who was the greatest” ? [Mk. 9:34] What’s the deal with our indignation and chronic discontentment with others – for basically being rampantly insecure and selfish just like us? [Mk. 10:41] How do we manage to daily deceive ourselves into believing that somehow our anger and insults […]
What’s really going on in the church? What are the subterranean happenings of the ekklesia? Well, if you really want to know …we are harboring an insurrectionist. He is an extremely powerful and subversive person operating in enemy occupied territory. He has won us to His cause, and made us members […]
I recently heard from an old friend about the following scenario – – – > A suave guy showed up in our community. Everyone was immediately drawn to him. He was good looking, outgoing, hospitable, easy to talk to, articulate, and he even spoke of how “he’s not perfect” and how he “needs the grace […]
I was recently talking with a good and trustworthy friend of mine, and he was telling me about a challenging relational situation he’s been dealing with. It is abundantly clear that my friend genuinely loves the individual he’s having problems with, and while it is true that love covers a multitude of sins, an inescapable […]
According to the dictionary on my computer – deluge means: “a great quantity of something arriving at the same time.” Certain seasons of life sometimes feel like this – – – > a deluge of difficulties, disturbances, and dilemmas. It’s kind of like 2017’s hurricane season – a series of heavy-duty hurricanes in quick succession. […]
On Sunday a retired pastor told me a story about a time when he was rebuked by a member of his congregation for being a “painfully bad preacher.” The retired pastor then scheduled a meeting with the Holy Spirit who used this traumatic confrontation to expose his idolatrous lust for man’s empty praise. The Holy […]