With all due respect to Dr. Suess, who wrote a book with this exact title, I feel this statement describes how I think about my life! As a boy born to an unwed mother in Fort Wayne, Indiana, I have been blessed beyond measure, and God has allowed me to do things I could never have imagined and to have gone places that would have never entered my mind. God’s…
Read MoreLooking Back and Looking Ahead: The Lord Has Been Good!
I was recently on the campus of Olivet Nazarene University for a trustee meeting and graduation weekend. Whenever I am on campus, it causes me to reflect on the goodness of God. I first visited the campus when I was in the eighth grade over fifty years ago. I well remember my freshman year and that I was so out of my element. Little did I know that my life…
Read MoreReturning to Where It Started!
Recently I spent several hours at a place near and dear to my heart: Olivet Nazarene University. I began my journey at Olivet on a warm August day in 1974, not just a journey to receive a college education, but a journey that has included that and so much more. Fast forward 41 years and this place still is a central part of my life. My recent visit was to…
Read MoreThe Folks You Meet Along The Way
The last two weeks have provided for me a wonderful opportunity to connect with longtime friends. Last week while attending a meeting in Kansas City I was able to sit in church and have lunch with my college roommate. He and I celebrate Birthdays that are two days apart. We have both promised to not tell tales on the other, not for altruistic reasons but for self-preservation. Dan was an…
Read MoreIn a world of change: Friends are Friends
Mrs. Blake and I are getting ready to move into a different district parsonage within the next month. We spent the entire day packing, taking some things to a storage unit and sending many things to a dumpster. Perhaps as a form of therapy, everyone should move periodically. Moving shows you what things you value. Going through one box today I saw 30 years of experiences pass before…
Read MoreThe Impact of our Words
At times it is easy to miss the important because it comes disguised as the ordinary. There are seemingly benign conversations with children that become the spark for discovery and change. There were many times when after preaching a sermon, I thought “Oh that was awful.” I would even ask God to help me to do better the next time, yet someone would tell me that God used something…
Read MoreThen I Met Jesus
Today I installed Todd Reynolds as pastor at the Church of the Nazarene in Morristown. Four years ago I wrote a blog about this town, and church and Byron Carmony. It is all still true today. So this is a blog resisted: Today I preached at our church in Morristown Indiana. Morristown is a town of 1200 people in Shelby County Indiana. There are two…
Read MoreAnd Here I learned to Know of Truth…
Spending several days on a college campus this past weekend brought back a flood of memories. There is this mystical drawing power of places upon our hearts and minds. The campus represents much more than brick and mortar. For you it may be a homestead, a high school, your home church and any other number of places. Their ability to impact our emotions and memories is why they mean so…
Read MoreA New Day A New Perspective
Today life looks different than it did yesterday or the week or month before. This is an important message that we would all do well not to forget. When something transpires in our lives that is bad, we are tempted to think this has ruined our lives. This will now define my life forever! Yet as the Bible reminds us in Lamentations: 3:22 It is of the Lord‘s mercies that we are…
Read MoreComfort Ye My People
I was introduced to Handel’s Messiah as a college student. Also did I mention that may girlfriend, now wife was a music minor. So, as a good boyfriend I attended the performances of the Messiah at Olivet Nazarene University. Somewhere between the first and second performance I fell in love with the music and the message of the Scripture. It is not Advent season without listening to it at…
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