The people we surround ourselves with shape our perspective and lifestyle the most. We’ve all had the experience of being around someone who is always negative, always expecting the worst thing...

The grass in my backyard remains constantly brown unless we water it every day. But we live in southern California where droughts are common, so water conservation is more important than...

Faith often requires us to trust in a perspective other than our own, which is an incredibly hard thing to do. It often asks us to suspend our rational judgment for...

Christ began to call me to ordained ministry eleven years before I answered. Even when I did, it was not a straight or certain path. As I prepared to preach my...

It’s a pattern: God calls; the one who is called demurs, claiming unsuitability for the task; and then, in a startling turnaround, the one who is called accepts the task. Isaiah...

What does it take to be accepted by those to whom God sends us? In an earlier reading this week, the prophet Isaiah volunteers to join the new thing that God...

“Preaching is the proclamation of good news.” This statement represents the core message of my teaching and preaching. Many preachers—perhaps even most—will concur with my statement, but few of them interpret...

It does not make sense, or at least it seems contradictory to the possibilities presented by divine invitation and the human acceptance. Isaiah seems to have been given a message that...

What an invitation this is, overwhelming in its majesty and awesome in its presentation. It is a call to consecration, dedication, newness, growth, unimagined purpose, possibilities, and even power. It’s a...

The first flush of excitement that comes with the opening of a new year is fading fast and may even have dissipated completely for you. And yet there is still the...