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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 drowne

If you are lonely, many Bible characters could identify with you. Even Jesus knew the pain of feeling all alone in the world. You might not be able to change some of the circumstances that have led to this, but you don’t have to feel this way. There are some things that you can do. But that’s the key…there are some things you have to do. Start by viewing your situation differently. There are a lot of people who crave the kind of solitude that you have grown accustomed to. And

In the eleventh century, King Henry III of Bavaria grew tired of court life and the pressures of being a monarch. He made application to Prior Richard at a local monastery, asking to be accepted as a contemplative and spend the rest of his life in the monastery. “Your Majesty,” said Prior Richard, “do you understand that the pledge here is one of obedience? That will be hard because you have been a king.”“I understand,” said King Henry, “The rest of my life I will be obedient

Linda and I spent a couple of days this week in my childhood hometown, La Crosse, Wisconsin, and I had an interesting encounter.I went back and visited the old church I grew up in. It’s a large and very ornate Romanesque style building, built in 1904. A door was open so Linda and I went in and wandered around, and a flood of childhood memories came, reminding me of the understanding I had of God back then. God, to me then, was big and powerful, but not personal. I don’t blame

Bill was buying a car. The dealership was offering an unbelievable rate, so he elected to finance it. He now says it was the worst decision he ever made.

It happened again this week. Someone I looked up to, someone who seemed to have a nearly perfect home. They were so good together, had good jobs, a nice house, great kids.

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.” – C.S. Lewis

I turned the TV on last night while getting ready for bed and saw parts of an old rerun of King of Queens. In this episode, Carrie (the wife) learns that Doug’s (the husband) parents’ dog, Rocky, is 28 years old. Having a hard time believing that, she inquired further, only to learn from his mother that this particular dog was actually Rocky IV, who was only a few years old, unbeknownst to Doug. The previous three Rockys all died, but they didn’t want to “upset Doug,” so they

Have you been watching the Olympics? There’s been so much to see: the entertainment of Usain Bolt, the resurgence of Michael Phelps, the whole story of Simone Biles. Most of us have tuned in live or online at some point over the last couple of weeks and statisticians believe that half the world’s population, 3.5 billion people, have watched at least a portion of this year’s Olympics. In fact, Simone Biles' gold gymnast routine was viewed in some form by nearly 3 billion peopl