It has now been a week since the gruesome strike of hurricane Ike. The storm crept through southeast Texas during the night. We felt the winds and rain of the outer span of the storm some twelve hours before the eye hit. We lost power somewhere in middle of that time and have not had [...]

As a Bible student, it is clear to me that in order for a church to be successful, it must be built on doctrine. In my earlier years as a believer, the word doctrine had a negative connotation. Dogma and doctrine were argumentative and divisive words. So we avoided them more than often. This is [...]

As way of context, 2 Timothy is Paul’s last epistle. He is in prison in Rome and awaiting his execution. He writes sort of a farewell letter to his successor Timothy who he one to the Lord and trained in the faith. It is a very sad yet encouraging letter. In verses 3-7 Paul is [...]

While providing an online forum a sort of layman’s look at hermeneutical practices I faced some opposition. Much of it was in the shadows where I couldn’t see, but some was in the light of day where all could witness. One in particular motivated me to write these thoughts. The person accused me of using [...]

Phil Johnson posted an interesting read on poor youth ministry philosophy. He poses a point that I think is more than worthy to pose. I have wondered this myself and even made some efforts to communicate it to our youth leaders (not because I think they are guilty of poor youth ministry philosophies, but because [...]

This year my birthday was exceptionally special. My wife and I thought it would be neat to go out on a date without the children (a rarity in our family). So my mother came over and watched our young ones while Kathy and I ran to Wal-Mart for groceries (yes, this is how young parents [...]

I wonder often why it is so hard for some people to forgive. Sometimes it is excused because of the gravity of the offense. Other times it is excused because the offender has not yet apologized. I’m sure that there are more reasons than these two, but reality is that Christians should always forgive. And [...]

An older man who was very dear to me once had a heart attack and was hospitalized for a few days. The attack was due to some continuous irregular heart beats. The irregularities were causing an imbalance in his blood circulation and so his body was fatiguing prematurely. We visited for a short time since [...]

Last night I enjoyed some genuine Christian fellowship at my church. It was a graduation of sort. After six classes in the New Member’s course, the participants celebrated over dinner while the pastor gave some closing comments and others of the church prayed for them. The class members were also given the opportunity to share [...]

Just minutes ago, my newborn began crying like she was in pain. It was a “bubble” or something like that – nothing life threatening. And to the rescue came Justus, who is only 4 years old. He wanted to pray for her. Apparently, this was his second time according to my wife. She called for [...]