The Sound Word

Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek." You may have heard the saying that goes something like this: "With great power, comes great responsibility". If you are a comic book fan, or a fan of the movies that have come out over the past few years featuring comic book heroes, you may recognize this phrase. Surprisingly, I found this quote attributed to one Stanley Martin Lieber, also known as Stan Lee, creator of most Marvel Comic superheroes like, the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic 4, Iron Man, and Spiderman in whose comic book those words were uttered. So how does Spiderman bring about biblical wisdom? Well, he probably doesn't really, but we can correlate what was said in that comic book into a lesson or biblical thought. Here's that thought. Doctor and gospel author Luke tells us in Luke 12:48 this: "But he that knew not, and ...

God has taken me through several phases in my ministry. Initially, it was 'Make yourself available'. Through that phase, I was guided to participate in mission trips, teach classes I would not otherwise have taught, to just generally do whatever was asked of me, and volunteer for everything that after providing for and making sure my family had all the quality time they needed. Phase 2 if you will was, "Honor your spiritual chain of command", in which I had to learn to die to myself, and follow the directions of those that the Lord had placed over me. This was not hard, but I learned a very necessary lesson along the way. Until lately, I have been in Phase 3: "Be diligent in what I have given you". I have been in that phase since the Lord called me to Bonney Lake to start a bible Study there and eventually plant what is now the small but healthy CCBL. I feel now that while the Lord is not done with me in Phase 3 (I doubt He ever will be…), that He has added ...

As the members of CCBL know, I had planned to do a 4-6 week study of dealing with hurt in the church. How to prevent being wounded, what to do when you are wounded, and how not to wound others. It turned out to be a totally God lead study through the book of 2 Corinthians. In hind sight, it may have been a God thing just to prepare me for upcoming events in my life as it was unfolding before me. I wrote the other day on my blog, and in my devotional, about a healing process that I had gone through (see Mother-in-Lew Reintroduced below), and an initial comment made by my friend Brian. Well, since then comments have kept coming in, not just from family and friends, but others who read my blog and receive the devotional that have no connection to my family, or any knowledge whatsoever of the interworking of our family to even have any idea what may have been going on. Yet, many people have been blessed by that story of healing. No one more than I. The healing power of God is complete, and...

Sounds bad huh? This event, or the mere mention of it may send shivers of the spines of some married men. Well, to be perfectly honey, I shared such a sentiment for a time. After first being married my relationship with my mother-in-law was fine. We got along swimmingly, and she lived two doors down! My wife and I, and Terri (my mother-in-law) and her husband went through much together. Our birth of three children, her hip replacement, work on the house, dealing with neighbors, and the death of her husband to lung cancer. Then, after 10 years of marriage there was a family incident that brought some separation. It was tragic, tragically misunderstood by many, and relations became strained. It's been 5 years since I have spoken to my mother-in-law, and last week, completely unexpectedly she walked (literally) back into our lives. We were at church, I in the back of the room, my wife sitting with the congregants. As I normally do, I waited for stragglers to come in (there are typical...