Is it noisy enough for you? Two national conventions stirring up politics of polarization have given the national media plenty of opportunity to be loud. Local law enforcement facing challenges in several cities across the country and another ISIS terror attack somewhere in the world all seem to have the volume ever increasing. Noisy indeed!

An old Billy Joel song comes to mind. The chorus lyrics include, “We didn’t start the fire. It’s been burnin’ since the world’s been turnin’.” ...read on

Fighting through the chemo attacking the stage IV Melanoma, the pain was intense. When visiting my brother in the hospital, I saw a pain chart on the wall that had a smiley face at the top, a frown face on the bottom and several in between reflecting progressive expressions. The nurse explained to me that they used the chart to manage the pain with drugs - it was important for the patient to not waste any energy fighting the pain. Whatever energy a patient has needs to be focused on fighting the cancer.

What a powerful analogy for Christians in this world. There is cancer in society that is causing a lot of pain. There are agendas given voice through a willing media stirring up the pain. ...read on

“News is news because it’s news.” Those were the wise words spoken by Harold Ensley, The Sportsman’s Friend in Kansas City, Missouri, forty-plus years ago at a high school baccalaureate service. The message referred to the increasing power granted to the media to influence opinion and mind-sets. The reminder was that news by definition is the exception however sensationally it is presented. The challenge put forth was ...read on

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Just over 240 years ago the Founding Fathers of these United States of America rebuked the tyrannical rule of the King of Great Britain with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. With their signatures, they documented “firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence” and mutually pledged “to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” Life-giving indeed to the generations that followed!

We have had our share of ups and downs as a nation trying to live into those powerful words, the convictions of our Founding Fathers. Today, “life” in America is more about ...read on

After three weeks in the San Juan Mountains of Southern Colorado, away from newspapers, the Internet and only intermittent phone service it has been tough returning to the noise level of the real world. The focus the last several weeks has been on tuning in to Christ to a new level in His creation with fathers & daughters and fathers & sons while hiking through some of His most beautiful country.

As I work to navigate through the election-year noise this week I am reminded of how my son and I helped several young men that had never backpacked in the mountains ascend 2500 feet ...read on

One of the most frustrating statistics on the fathering front is that less than one in ten families attending church weekly have any spiritual discussion in the home between Sundays. This lack of leadership gives the world more influence than we realize and the result rests square on the shoulders of dads!

When kids are learning to drive, we ...read on

THIS FATHER’S DAY, June 19th, 2016, commit as a faithful father to:

1. Prioritize physical presence in the home and with family. ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning … The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.’ John 1:1-2, 14. Just as God provided a connection with Him through the physical presence of His Son, a father provides a connection to the Father by being present and accounted for in family.
2. Be engaged emotionally ...read on

The command is to: Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. – Exodus 20:12. This is the commandment with a promise. It bridges the first commandments to the last; it bridges the spiritual relationship with God to the physical relationships with others; and it bridges faith from one generation to the next.

I encourage you to accept a 3-point challenge to Honor Your Father: ...read on

“Born in the 1920’s, he grew up in the depression poor like most rural American children. … As he grew up he belonged to the Boy Scouts, played trumpet in the high school band and went to church almost all Sundays. In 1944 this 18-year old country boy who never traveled more than 50 miles from home found himself going through basic training at a U.S. Army Camp in Texas. After that, he rode a train with hundreds of other teenagers to New York City to board a Liberty ship to cross the Atlantic to fight WWII. … He was in the 7th Army ...read on

Pleading the fifth is critical in a court of law when the defendant is called to testify against him or herself. The reference to the fifth amendment points to provisions concerning prosecution and reminds us how the founding fathers provided for basic individual rights, one of which is that no one can “be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.”

Calling on the fifth commandment in the book of the Law is critical when ...read on