I’ve always hated bell-bottoms. My bell-bottoms used to get really dirty in the summer time. Why would Mom and Dad even let me put them on in the first place? Well, I guess because it was 1977. In the deep south people were not exactly fashion-forward, but my parents always had me wearing things that were a little ahead of the times for my small hometown. I remember exactly how dirty they used to get because of a photograph that I look at ever so often.

It was taken during a time when my parents were traveling around the country in evangelism. Me and my two year old sister stayed in Birmingham with some of my relatives. I come from a very southern, country background. Many of the stereotypes of people from the south apply perfectly. From biscuits and gravy and overalls with no undershirts, to dippin’ snuff, toothless smiles, bigotry, drinking and raising hell on weekends, my relatives did it all. Although I come from a family of ministers on both sides with many men and women that loved God with all their …

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Some times life sucks. I mean, I realize that having love and a family and a relationship with God are all things that truly transcend negativity, or even the mundane things of life like bad TV, but sometimes the “suck factor” is so high that you cannot help but notice. Today one of my close friends is having surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his chest. They say it is the size of a softball. A softball? I would prefer to just know the size in the metric system or something, rather than these types of comparisons. I feel bad enough for him already. He is troubled enough too. A softball? That sucks.

My friend is a 25 year old pastor with a young wife. They are expecting their first baby in just a few months. This is not a conversation about why bad things happen to good people, or suffering in the world, or the sovereignty of God or anything like that. This is the way I feel. I have felt so discouraged at times in my life that …

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American culture is changing at this moment faster than I ever witnessed in my lifetime. Political and religious stereotypes are meshing into something that is nearly indistinguishable.  I don’t often use German philosophy to illustrate spiritual truths, but Hegel’s concepts of thesis (truth), anti-thesis (the opposite of that truth), and synthesis (a blending, or new idea from both) to me is applicable right now in our society because something new is being created.

I am concerned because I do believe in truth and I believe the ever quoted John 14:6speaks of that kind of Truth. “I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”. No eisegesis here, simply pointing out the fact that Christ is inseparable from His Word. Jesus then in John 16:13 promised of the Holy Spirit that we would receive after His ascension, “Yet when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. “ John 8:31-32 corroborates. “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Truth is becoming a philosophical conversation rather than an absolute in our world.

It is …

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