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In The Day Christ Was Born , best selling author and journalist, Jim Bishop wrote a reliable and true-to-life analysis of Jesus’ birth. I loved the realism throughout the book, but I’d like to quote for you what he says about young Mary, the soon-to-be mother."She no longer noticed the chafe of the goatskin against her leg, nor the sway of the food bag on the other side of the animal. Her veiled head hung and she saw millions of pebbles on the road moving by her brown eyes in

Several years ago we held a special Veteran’s Day service in our church to honor veterans. Because it was an election year, we also invited politicians to join us, thinking they would, being as they were up for election and wanted to go anywhere with a crowd of potential voters. We were right. We had a big crowd and quite a few candidates from both major parties. It was a nonpolitical service (as everything is here at The Bridge) and we saw it as an opportunity to expand our

Here it is….Christmas season! Are you ready? Decorations up? Gift list completed? Shopping started? Plans for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day settled?While most every Christian talks about Christ being left out of Christmas, they tend to be as guilty of that as anyone. Though we say Christmas is about Jesus’ birth, we get our kids more excited about the myth of Santa than we do about the truth of Jesus (and in doing so cause a lot of later doubts–see my blog dated November 26

I’m sure you’ve seen the footage. The 150 lb. guy lugging a 90 lb. pot of gold he found unguarded in back of an armored delivery truck. Obviously, the armored car company and the police have lost the whereabouts of the thief and the gold, or they would not have released the video. This happened back in September! With all the street surveillance in NYC, you’d think they could have followed him. But he’s disappeared with his loot. All the news articles and comments I’ve read h

I was struck at the bank the other day when I noticed the vault was left open and unattended, yet, I was filling out a deposit slip with a pen that was chained to the counter.Does that seem ironic to you?I’m guilty of those little hypocritical gestures….such as ordering a burger, fries, and then a DIET Coke. A friend of mine used to leave his new $30,000 car in his driveway, because his $2,000 camper was taking up the garage space. I could go on and on with things that we do

In our Outsiders series through the Book of Daniel, we’ve learned that this world is not really ours, and that our home is in heaven. But as followers of Jesus and living in this world, we still have responsibilities and should fulfill all of them faithfully. That includes, as temporal citizens of the United States, voting for candidates we believe would bless the people best, and even engaging in discourse regarding the issues (in person…NOT online!).However, I know very fe

The problems with politics in a democracy is that by it’s very nature we have to choose between imperfect people. Sometimes the choice is more stark than others, and sometimes it’s our background and upbringing that causes us to focus on the strengths or weaknesses of either candidate, causing us to view stark differences where others may not. For the citizens of the kingdoms of this world, it’s understandable that they pick sides and swear allegiance to an imperfect candidat

Two fathers in the same town with similar families and life circumstances faced a similar trial. Both received word from a mutual friend that their middle school boys were involved in some mild illegal activity. How the two fathers responded made a lasting difference.The first father saw the crisis as an opportunity to make changes in his own schedule to give his son more time, and to become more involved in his life, talking regularly about his values and the things in life

Saparmurat Niyazov was president of the former Soviet block nation, Turkmenistan, from 1990 until his death in 2006. While his title was “President”, he changed the title to “President for Life”, declaring it to be a lifelong position with no need for ongoing elections, also making him dictator. He was eccentric to say the least, and made sweeping senseless legal changes at every whim. Among other things, he banned keeping dogs in the capital city, along with opera, ballet, m

Our church’s mission is to connect people with God, connect people with people, and to connect people with service.Of that triad, the second ties the first and last together. God did not just create us as individuals, he created us as relational beings along with others. When Adam was first made, God said, “It is not good that man should be alone."And when it comes to our faith journey, including other people is a big deal. It was for every Bible character and every strong Ch

You don’t have to learn Hebrew to talk to God. He understands English just fine. But God does have a special prayer language he wants you to communicate in.  I’m not talking about an unintelligible gibberish that some advocate. I’m talking about something much more powerful. A way to talk with God and know that you have his attention. Something that he says that he wants to hear. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; f

This is a reprint from only five months ago. But with the appalling revelations recently of both candidates, I thought it would be an important reminder for us, especially in light of our new series on the Book of Daniel: OUTSIDERS. •  Things have been worse . How would you have liked to live under Diocletian and know that being a Christian you’ll soon lose your job and possibly your life? Or maybe it would have been better in medieval Europe, where entire villages were drown