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Bad luck or good luck? Who knows?

We often look at our negative circumstances in life and believe certain events are the final. Illness, loss of employment, a bad review, or a broken relationship can make us view life as bleak. However, what if God is at work in the seemingly unfortunate events in life?

Long ago, there once was a farmer who depended on a horse to work the land. Unfortunately, a lightning storm frightened the horse, and it ran away. The farmer searched for the horse for weeks but could not find it. His friends said, “Sorry you lost your horse. Bad luck.”

Read the rest on Syracuse Post-Standard.

BibleGateway, blog, review

Book Review: Simple Faith Bible NRSV – Reflections from Jimmy Carter

Zondervan, 2020

Of all the United States Presidents, only Jimmy Carter was a Sunday School teacher AND President at the same time. On Sundays, Jimmy Carter would travel nine blocks to the First Baptist Church of Washington D.C to gather attendees to study scripture. Often not publicized, Carter would teach about 30 attendees lessons from the Bible and also offer counsel to anyone who requested. Decades later, Carter still teaches Sunday School for up to 450 people at his church in Plains, GA. It should surprise no one that Carter would lend his pen to the Simple Faith Bible: Following Jesus into a Life of Peace, Compassion, and Wholeness New Revised Standard Verison offering devotional insights and spiritual commentary.

Why should you consider this Bible?

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Living into the liminal

Transitional times, liminal times, like we are experiencing during the Coronavirus pandemic and crisis, are never marked with clear delineations. Transitions and crises are often bumpy, fraught with mistakes, and require high amounts of energy.

It is during times of national crisis, coronavirus, or personal crisis times we discover that we don’t know what’s next?

This is called “Liminal space” The word “liminal” comes from the Latin word limens, which means, “threshold.” 

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Podcast: Living Life at the Kids Table

Living Life at the Kid’s Table

As adults, we don’t want to be at the “kids table” – do we?

Have you ever went to a wedding reception or a fundraiser dinner only to find that your seats are way in the back away from the head table? You can’t really see or hear what’s going on at the head table and you miss all “the action” of what the important people are doing. Maybe you get your food last! You don’t get to brush shoulders with the hosts or people you’d really like to interact with. Jesus once addressed this type of situation: when you are invited to a big dinner, don’t go out of your way to get the best seats. In fact, when you host a banquet, don’t invite the upstanding important people who are the “in-crowd”, instead invite the lowly. To Jesus, this makes God’s kingdom real and visible – but why? Why do this? Why should we be eating at the reception equivalent of the kid’s table at Thanksgiving?

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blog, Christianity

What Christians get wrong about Kingdom theology

We live in a world that is obsessed with duality and dualism. Our culture is narrated by opposing forces such as Democrat and Republican, poor and rich, the winners and losers, and saved and unsaved. Dramatic attention of such opposing viewpoints creates tension and unnecessary anxiety in cultural and family systems. When religious people create a hyper-focus on dualism, it bifurcates the love of Christ and basic Bible comprehension.

When Liberty University president and Evangelical leader, Jerry Falwell Jr. spoke to The Washington Post about politics, Christianity, poverty, and culture he made several critical theological, hermeneutical, and exegetical mistakes. Among his comments… (read the rest of my article at The Christian Citizen)

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Podcast for Sermons

Right now, I’m in the process of utilizing sermon feeds and podcast feeds. Below is an archive of sermons. Over the next weeks, I’ll have a regular podcast distribution.

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Thanks to Tony Campolo for the shout-out

After writing my Baptist News Global opinion column on our culture’s selective moral outrage, I’m thankful for Rev. Dr. Tony Campolo for the shout-out on his Facebook page. Tony is the reason why I went to Eastern College and Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Way back in 1995, I heard him preach at a District of Columbia Baptist Convention meeting. Over the years, I’ve reminded Tony of his impact on my life as a student – as I’m sure he’s heard about from thousands of students. I was honored to introduce Tony at a conference in Albany, NY a number of years ago. I admire his strength, passion, and prophetic witness, which has spanded over 50 years.

blog, Christianity

Stormy Daniels, Donald Trump, and the King David Defense

The bad jokes about Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump have started: “There’s a storm a-brewin’.” Evangelicals, who voted for Trump at around 80 percent, face their own storm and continue to stand by their candidate despite the recent growing allegations that Trump had an extramarital relationship with the pornographic film star. Trump has largely been silent on the issue despite proclaiming his innocence in the Russian election meddling investigation on Twitter. To add fuel to the fire, Daniels (her real name is Stephanie Clifford) passed a lie detector test regarding her sexual relationship with Trump. A recent poll revealed that 40 percent of Evangelicals believe the stories about Trump’s infidelities. The share of Evangelicals who believe Trump’s claim is fake news? Continue Reading…

blog, trauma

Why this Parkland shooting photo is so painful

Another shooting, another community in grief. I’m not going to repeat the shooter’s name because that what people who do this stuff want. A shooter walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL and killed 17 people and injured many others.

Of the many images of the Parkland shooting that emerged, one brought tears to my eyes instantly.

The Associated Press photographer Joel Auerbach took a picture that was truly painful. I saw this picture shared on social media dozens of times on Facebook and Twitter. The photo came up on the news on television. It is being shared over and over.

Why are so many people sharing it?

Continue Reading…

blog, Christianity

TV interview on Sutherland Springs shooting


I sat down with WSYR Channel 9 here in Syracuse, NY to give some reflection upon the horrible shooting in Sutherland Springs, TX at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs. It’s not often we pastors and ministers have a chance to speak into national news stories.

I was very thankful that WSYR wanted to seek out a minister to provide some spiritual and pastoral insight. Click below to watch the video interview:  Continue Reading…

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