October 16, 2026

 

"Our love grows soft if it is not strengthened by truth, and our truth grows hard if it is not softened by love.”  ~John Stott~

Christians must be able to flex two muscles at the same time, compassion and courage. Jesus did this, and so did the early church, and so must we. Our courage is to be demonstrated in a hostile world that is lost and dying, as they demonstrate antipathy toward us and their anti-Christian hostility deepens each day. Our culture views us as the mystic prophets of the absolute, and they want nothing to do with us or our message of eternal life. They believe they can and must save themselves at whatever cost of blasphemy or heresy. However, we must also demonstrate compassion to people who despise our Savior and us, His ambassadors, simply because we tell them they are not perfect and cannot save themselves. (The serpent enticed Eve with the possibility that she would know and be like God. The utopian urge is always within us.) The way to find compassion for the lost is to remember that I was once one of them myself, and so were you. But when I was lost, the kindness of God was brought forth to me. (Ephesians 2:1-8) Compassion is a feeling and grace is an action. God had both for me and has both for “them", and I get to tell them about the One who gives both. We live in a complex and complicated world. It can often delude the eyes and beguile the heart. But its end is death, and its destination is eternal Hell, separation from God. I hope you have a sense of urgency to share the truth evidenced by love. Remember, John 13:35- “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”  Serving Him with you Until He comes for us, Fred

October 9, 2026

There's a great difference between believing something still, and believing it again. -G. C. Lichtenberg-

Having been a pastor, a professor, and an apologist for half a century, I can't help but observe and sense that we are entering into an age of doubt and despair. That's not to say there are no signs of renewal or reasons for hope in certain areas. But I see so many signals of God being severed from our society and culture. As Nietzsche insightfully stated, “When the world discovers that God is dead, there will be universal madness.” The fact is, Nietzsche is dead, Jesus is alive, but we still have a sense of madness permeating our culture. I know many believers who still believe, in spite of evidence to the contrary. But I also know many who need to believe again. Doubt has disenchanted them from truth. Despair has deprived them of delight. Culture has corrupted their confidence in Christ. They find themselves torn and in two minds, which is what doubt actually is all about.  I doubt that the days are going to get better. But they do not need to, because as the second law of spiritual expansion says: The greater the heat, the greater the expansion. We call it the Great Commission.                            Remember, with God there are no accidents, only divine incidents. “And lo, I am with you always.”  Serving Him with you Until He comes for us, Fred

October 2, 2026

We are Slaves of Fashion C.S. Lewis

The iPhone, the internet, and AI are all transporters of information that contain filtered algorithms from their transmitters but are often unperceived by their receivers. Listen to Alan Hirsch's insightful words on the power of uncritically examined information. “These forces operate through the stories we come to inhabit without examination, the desires quietly cultivated within us by design, the fears that move populations before reflection has a chance to occur, and the systems that train whole societies to react first and perceive only afterward, if at all. Their characteristic method is subtlety rather than spectacle. A half-truth gets amplified until it occupies the space of the whole truth. A legitimate concern calcifies into a totalizing identity. A needed critique metastasizes into an explanation for everything. Suspicion gets elevated to the status of a virtue, and raw certainty comes to substitute for the patient work of wisdom.”   I find myself more often feeling overwhelmed by information, data, and what is called knowledge. It takes more effort to confirm its accuracy and convert it to wisdom. I remind myself that Solomon reminds me, "the writing of books is endless and wearisome to the soul." So is the news.  Serving Him with you Until He comes for us, Fred