The phrase, ‘the twenty who stayed’ keeps scrolling across my memory, those students who loitered in the presence of God at the end of the Asbury University chapel service, unable to do anything else. One said, she thought it was twenty minutes, but it turned into three hours. Worship, prayer, songs of deliverance, freedom for…
Tag: Prayer
Asbury Revival-Please Read Now!
It’s Saturday afternoon, and I’m at the café down the way, seated among a throng of younger people, some alone and brooding, and others smiling in conversation. I’ve just tuned into the live feed of the revival going on at Asbury College, now for the past week and a half. I’m participating from a vantage…
Laura’s story
The doctors had signed the paperwork. Officially, she was gone. My younger sister Laura had come to the hospital with a burst kidney, and during surgery her heart had stopped. This is Laura speaking: “I found myself kneeling before a figure wearing sandals, and I knew it was Jesus. In that moment I felt a…
Finding A Rest, That Rests-Part II
BEATING WEARY WITH LOVE Most of us would have to admit we rarely if ever find ourselves completely rested, though all of us long for it. We long for a child’s energy, waking up ready and raring to go, skipping to breakfast! Instead, we substitute deep rest for a preoccupation with over-filling our day. We…
Finding A Rest, That Rests
During a catch-up appointment with a young leader, I noticed how tired his eyes looked. Toward the end of our time, I asked him how he was doing. He responded that he was beat, having just passed through a rigorous season of travel and ministry. He had tried to take some time off, but things…
Hard-Wired, Fit For Heaven
It was my senior year, county championships, mile run. My coach had entered me because he said I might break the county record. My personal best was 15 seconds faster than any other runner in the field. On the starting line I leered at my competition, literally growled at them, saliva running onto my beard. …
A Sow Named Gertrude
There’s a sow who lives on my daughter Brianna’s farm named Gertrude. Because of her trim figure, she has avoided being a pork chop, and become a pet. A while back dogs attacked her and ran off with her ears. Yea, that’s right, her ears! Oh, don’t feel too sad for Gertrude, she’s still one…
Love Carries A Saw
My friend Bob used to remind me that God comes as love, carrying a saw. When he was 19, Bob and his brother crashed into a telephone pole, and walked away unscathed. But Bob stumbled going up the embankment and his arm touched a down power line. He said during his six month’s hospital stay…
Three Questions…
Another one in the books. Another 365 days, the slow grind of a year, that now glancing back, feels more like a runaway train. Today I take pause before the train leaves the station of 2023, and ask myself three questions. Perhaps one of these will resonate with you. Did I view myself as God does?…
A Moment with the Trinity
The Lord has given us boundless imaginations. Join me as I picture a moment with the Trinity. I see them ion’s ago; the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, sitting down at the far side of the universe to decide which one would interpret love to the soon coming human race. Each one of equal worth,…
Grumpy Disciples-Contemplation’s Role in Re-creation
One of my favorite times of the day is what I call office hours. I shut the door to my office, put on piano music, light a candle, and close my eyes. The silence wraps me like a heavy blanket. My thoughts are a bundle of sharp brambles; their edges poke at me, a reminder…
Contemplation – One Step of Hope at a Time
A couple years ago, after heart issues had me in and out of the hospital, I fell into a dark place. I use the word dark to describe how sleep escaped me, and how each successive night of wide-eyed toss and turns left me weaker, more anxious and wondering if I’d ever get a full…
To Sir, with love 