Have you tossed any relational hand grenades lately? It might have happened over breakfast as you were discussing the day ahead. One off-handed remark and a good breakfast is ruined by an explosion. At the office, you probably have a short-list of grenade throwers. These are the folks who pull the pin and toss grenades into an otherwise peaceful discussion. Parents pass down relational hand grenades to their children. Teachers toss them into the hearts of students. At one time or another, all of us have been guilty. When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossian church, he listed a few hand grenades that will rip apart any relationship: "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you…
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I'm pleased to announce that I now have three books available for the Kindle: one novel and two short ebooks. The novel is called "Lesser Angels" and tells the story of a brother and sister who discover a secret about their deceased mother and set out to find answers. I titled it "Lesser Angels" because of the people they meet along the way and what they discover about themselves. "The Cure for Insomnia: Preaching That Won't Put People to Sleep" offers my perspective on preaching and communication. Much of this has been road-tested over the past twenty-five years, including those early sermons that inflicted too much pain on my audience. It's not intended to be an academic treatise but the journal of a fellow traveller. "Leading with Heart: Faith-Filled Thoughts on Leadership" is designed to look at leadership through the lens of faith. If leadership is best defined as influence,…
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“As long as we are unable to forgive we keep ourselves chained to the unforgiving. We give them rent-free space in our mind, emotional shackles in our heart, and the right to torment us in the small hours of the night.” I'm not sure who wrote that but I like it. How often have you given someone "rent-free space" in your mind? Long after the comment or the event has passed, you go back and replay it again ... and again ... and again. It becomes an unwelcome guest, like family members who stay beyond three days (just kidding). You feel the emotional shackles every time the person is around, or when their name is mentioned. An unwillingness to forgive is a willingness to be tormented. It doesn't have to be that way. I am sure who wrote this (and I like it even more): "Therefore, as God’s chosen people,…
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Here's a video we showed at church a few weeks ago featuring a good friend of mine and his story. Rick Bowers Service Testimony from Mountainview on Vimeo.
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I'm not sure how it happened. Somewhere between our old house and our new house, we lost our bathroom scale. Technically, it's likely buried at the bottom of a box in the garage labeled "miscellaneous." To be honest, I didn't miss it for the first few weeks (OK, maybe for a whole month). But that changed while shopping at Bed, Bath, and Beyond last week. Our old scale had been in the family since the time we got married. Bed, Bath, and Beyond carries these new fancy scales. Glass frames, digital displays. I think you can even play Angry Birds on one of them. So I decided it was time to buy a new scale. I settled on two that were both glass frames and similar in price. I took the first one and placed it on the ground: it registered 188 lbs. Putting it back, I placed the second…
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