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The Ukrainian people are in the middle of a nightmare. When I saw this photo. I remembered images of Jewish children separated from their parents, hiding in the dark sewers of the Warsaw Ghetto. I remember visiting a holocaust museum in Florida. While standing in one the cattle cars that took Jews to their deaths in Auschwitz…

Well the mob in Eugene is coming for the cross.
I had the privilege for over a decade to teach at the then Eugene Bible College. A former student contacted me last night and shared a link to a local news feed that reported that the mob of mostly peaceful protestors is coming after the 50 foot cross that used to be a landmark in Eugene.  In 1997 it was moved to the campus of what is now called New Hope Christian College.

My undergraduate degree is in History. I had an emphasis on German history…particularly the period known as the Weimar Republic. I was fascinated to learn  that otherwise sane, brilliant disciplined people could so quickly surrendered their wills, their children and ultimately their lives…

We were walking along Peach Tree Street…We heard a scuffle up ahead and some come police officers running towards the next corner…Next thing I know… Pastor Larry was running too… He got up to the scene just as they cuffed one of the combatants… Then one of the Atlanta cops looked at Larry and said. “Oh Hi Chaplain…”

 I’ve never been much a headphones type of guy. During this social distancing nightmare though, I’ve taken to doing long walks with headphones attached. It’s become a sort of ritual. I see people blocks ahead and I dutifully do the right thing… I go out into the road and concede the sidewalk…it’s a Corona thing.

Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace. Therefore, as soon as they heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre and harp and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations and men of every language fell down and worshiped the image of gold that King Nebudchadnezzar had set up.”
Daniel 3:6-7

It was 1967 or was it 68? I don’t remember the actual year. In fact, much of the detail surrounding this incident is jumbled patchwork of random snapshots in my brain. The actual attack I don’t remember at all  What I do remember haunts me to this day.

I have, in recent posts, been revisiting a sermon given by C.S. Lewis titled, Learning in War Time. Delivered in 1939, This message was intended to address the issue of whether normal, usual vocational pursuits should continue to take place in a time when the very existence of England was at stake.

With all the current discussion of the efficacy and availability of masks, I found myself remembering something I shared years ago in a Sunday morning sermon. I remember asking, “Did…

On my uniform there was a cross on the epaulets, so it is safe to say that he knew I was a minister. He was about 6’6” …tall… muscular and looked for all the world like a gang banger right out of central casting. He walked right up to me and had what I took to be a scowl on his face. “Hey! You down there?” I knew what he meant…

It was one of those churches that looked like a Currier and Ives print…or a Norman Rockwell Painting…Steeple… Belfry…Organ…the whole nine yards…twenty miles away from the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. I remember how grateful I felt that night. Grateful for my young family, and grateful for the privilege of serving this congregation. My wife (as she always did) organized…

My roommate from seminary, Pastor Grady Williams, once illustrated a powerful truth…one that we can all benefit from by letting it sink into our troubled minds. We were at a restaurant and discussing something to do with one of our classes. We were discussing the verse which begins, “That which can be shaken will be shaken…”