#FreshStart, Week 2 — The “Fresh StartS” Sermon Rewind

Yesterday's message ... Came from Lamentations.   Yes!  Lamentations! Was inspired by my many recovery friends; Led to a bottom line with a -- non-sexual -- double entendre:  Mercy beats you up. --------------------------------------------------------------------- So...

read more

Talkin’ Bout My Generation

At a recent Young Adult LifeGroup, a newleywed-ish couple shared an insightful answer to the question: "When, if ever, have you felt the power of 'fellowship' and what it means to be part of the Body of Christ." And the young couple answered, "When Ron & Eleanor...

read more

Why Is This Guy So Happy?

Because he just signed a contract for a sixth book with Abingdon Press, that's why. Come again? That's right.  After a few months of dreaming, praying, proposing, writing, and praying some more, I got the word last week that Abingdon will turn my preaching workshop...

read more

Fresh Start, Week 1 — The Freshest Start Sermon Rewind

We started the Fresh Start series with a series that focused on the signature New Testament verse about new beginnings, 2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!     The challenge,...

read more

Fresh Start Launch: “The Freshest Start”

Fresh Start  Sometimes you just want to start over.  Other times you want to begin again.  Still others you long for a re-set. Whatever you call it, most of us go through seasons in life where we want … no, we need … a fresh start. That’s what August is about at Good...

read more

#TBT — Kalamazoo, Michigan, August 1978

If it's early August, that means that the best junior tennis players in the USA have converged on Kalamazoo, Michigan for the US National Boys' 18 and Boys' 16 and Under Championships. Which takes me back forty years ago to when I was seeded 13th in the Boys' 16...

read more

A Mission To Notice

In her memoir Priestdaddy, Patricia Lockwood has this moment of self-awareness: I consider myself on an anthropological mission, much like Margaret Mead.  I have discovered that this makes almost anything bearable – it would have been such a salvation in my childhood...

read more

Top Five Tuesday — Top Five Books On Sports

I love reading and I love sports. So combine the two and VOILA! Sports books. I read them whenever I can. So here are my Top Five Sports Books of all time: 5. Instant Replay by Jerry Kramer. One of the first "behind the scenes" look at modern pro sports, this one is...

read more