God

The World According To James

“Get yourself a stack of 3 X 5 cards, and come see me.” Dr. Wright was my favorite college professor, by far. We formed a friendship born in the classroom and developed at the baseball stadium, where I played and he cheered. While he taught and I ran the bases, somehow we became “equals.” So when he asked me to help hone his Spanish speaking skills by conversing with him exclusively in my native language and I gleefully agreed, he sat in motion an event that has molded my life to this day.   The business of cards I sat […]

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Misplaced Hope

In Psalm 20:7 David makes a powerful statement: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” Misplaced hope? Back in David’s day if you had chariots and horses, you were a force to be reckoned with. You had power and stability on the battlefield. Power and stability brought comfort and peace. What David is saying here is that his power and stability comes by trusting in the name of the Lord. Meaning, he’s not putting his hope in things that he can physically control. He’s trusting, or in other […]

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In Women’s History Month, Look Back Gratefully But Also Look Around

As I peruse the fascinating resources collected for Women’s History Month, I thank God for the suffragists and other pioneers in our land of opportunity, a land where opportunity hasn’t always abounded for all. But as I look back with gratitude, I also look around me to see many women today who inspire us by using the gifts God gave them: serving and leading, untethered by the stereotypes and expectations of culture. Consider some of the encouraging ladies we see within the Palm Beach Atlantic community.  Best Women at PBA Among many key female leaders at PBA, here are two […]

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My Capitol Experience

I find it interesting how a date will memorialize a moment in time. Loss has a particular ability to memorialize itself. We have all experienced some form of loss or another in the past year. We have lost loved ones; we have lost jobs, opportunities, experiences and the like. We have also lost some “heroes,” not all necessarily to a global pandemic but to the ever-present sin pandemic. A few weeks ago, I was reminded that my father had passed twelve years ago. Lisa, my wife, and I were also reminded of the loss of her sister 31 years ago […]

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Franklin Graham: Christ’s Light Outshines Any ‘Dark Winter’

(Leave a comment below on what Christ’s Light is doing for you during this dark winter.) Our nation’s 46th president, Joe Biden, has warned that we will be facing a “dark winter” as the COVID-19 virus continues to spread across America.  The Dark Winter The impact certainly has been enormous. Hundreds of thousands have died since the first case of the virus was reported last January in Washington state. Since then, hospital ICU units have been overwhelmed, frontline health care workers have been pushed to their limits, many churches have been unable to meet for worship and our daily lives […]

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Church by the Glades Is What’s Trending

A meager 42 percent of millennials attend church, according to a recent Gallup Poll, but one local church is drawing them in droves. Known for their high energy music, LED lights show and full on theatrical production, Church by the Glades, with its “No Perfect People” slogan, attracts a diverse crowd of about 9,000 people to their campuses on a typical weekend (pre-COVID) with the average age of attendees in their early thirties. “It’s hard to fall asleep in our church,” said David Hughes, Lead Pastor of Church by the Glades (CBG), who utilizes innovative and creative methods to passionately […]

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The Frail Strength of Humility

“For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls” (Hebrews 12:3). Hung on the cross Let’s go back in time and imagine that we have followed the Savior along the Via Dolorosa on his way to Calvary. When we arrive at the hill, we are startled by the two thieves writhing in agony, already nailed to their crosses. The central cross, the place of greatest infamy, is where the soldiers will raise up Jesus to die. We see the two thieves and shudder. Several days before, James and John, […]

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A Biblical “BE MINE”

February is generally thought of as “The Month of Love” because of “the day of love”—February 14, Valentine’s Day. If you are anything like me, you probably have some memories of grade school (or as a parent of your own child) and the “mandatory” valentine card that was to be given out to each student. You couldn’t miss anyone; everyone in your class had to receive a card, so no one’s feelings would be hurt. When our four children were growing up, Kim and called it “Frantic February 14th” (unless the day fell on the weekend, making it “Frantic Friday”), […]

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Lonely Gates

The first eight years of my life I had the privilege of living in many different places, some of them exotic, some beautiful, some cold, some strange, some familiar. Perhaps you had a similar upbringing. I cherish those experiences. One of the places I lived was a small town in North Carolina, called Montreat. Montreat was a great place to grow up as a child because we were able to explore the streams, mountain paths, forests and allow our imagination to run wild in what could easily be the land that time forgot. One thing unique about this town was […]

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Violence In The Land

Josephus, the ancient historian who chronicled first century Jewish history in The Jewish War, says that 12,000 Jews died when the Roman general Pompey captured Jerusalem in 63 BC. Another Jewish text from the period described the brutal violence of these events this way: “The lawless one laid waste our land, so that no one inhabited it; They massacred young and old and children at the same time… As the enemy was a stranger and his heart alien to our God, he acted arrogantly.” They were violent times The Jewish ruler Archelaus killed 3000 Jews in 4 BC, massacres occurred […]

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