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…than to get restarted. That’s all I could think of last night while huffing and puffing and sweating profusely. I was only two miles into a measly three mile run and a pace much slower than I ran seven weeks ago. But that was the problem. It’s been seven weeks since the Chicago Marathon, and I’ve not run so much as a block since. It’s a lot easier to keep going than to get restarted. Had I kept it up, three miles would be a cakewalk. But we left for Israel right after the ma

Today’s post is guest written by Chuck Lawless and reprinted from Thom Rainer’s blog: thomrainer.com. I reprint it in edited form, coveting your prayers for me and our other leaders at The Bridge. Nine Ways to Pray for Church Leaders by Chuck Lawless 1. Pray they will keep their eyes on God. King Jehoshaphat faced three combined enemy armies, and he did not know what to do – except to lock his eyes on God. That’s the answer any time we have no clue about next steps. “For we a

Regarding the right balance in teamwork, Darryl Zanuck wrote, “If two people on the same job agree all the time, then one is useless. If they disagree all the time, both are useless.”I’d have to say that besides the usual expressions of gratitude for this weekend, one of my greatest blessings in life is to serve alongside a diverse, godly and gifted team. I am truly thankful for our staff here at The Bridge. They challenge me and each other, and then work together as a powerf

Today (Thursday) is a sick day at the Zieglers. Linda, Erica, Brock and I all have the stomach flu. We got it from Madison. Thank you very much Sweetie Pie!So Brock and I were sitting in our living room reading and Brock had his music playing and as I’m listening to the lyrics to the song, I thought, “That doesn’t sound good.” So I said to Brock, “What kind of song is that? ‘I want you to pull my britches down’ ?"“What? No Dad, it’s, 'I want you to burn my bridges down!’"I gu

While The Bridge is one of the most peaceful churches you will ever encounter, being full of people and led by frail men, we do face minor conflict from time to time. Probably the most common surrounds the purpose of our church and what kind of church we believe we are supposed to be. When you think of it, once that is settled, most other decisions are simplified and we are able to clearly see our way through to the things we do and don’t do, and how we approach every minist

Maybe you remember President Obama saying that shortly after he came into office. I did listen to his speech on Wednesday after the Republican wave in the House and Senate, but I didn’t hear him reiterate those words. :-) But elections do have consequences.That’s true in politics and in life. You probably know me well enough to know that I don't use my platform or this blog for politics. I’m not talking about politics here. I’m talking about life. You see, an  election , at i

After ten days of traveling and touring, we arrived home last Monday. If you’ve kept up on my previous posts, you’ll see that we had seven full days of touring Israel. Our eighth day was a free day, and Linda and I and a group of a few others, did a tunnel tour under the streets of Israel. It was fascinating, of course, as we were able to see aspects of the city near the Temple Mount that date before the time of Jesus. That evening, we boarded a plane to go home. It’s always

We visited quite a range of sites today. We went into the Judean mountains west of Jerusalem and located the Valley of Elah where David fought Goliath. We walked along the stream bed (it is dry this time of year) where he picked out five smooth stones and we found our own as keepsakes. We then visited Beit Shemesh, which was Delilah's hometown. It is mentioned a number of times in the Old Testament because it was a border city occupied by Philistines and the site of numerous

Every settlement, village, or city in the ancient world had to have a water source. The nomads even chose their temporary encampments by proximity to water source, and they wandered the desert following the vegetation, which follows the water. The Bedouins are today’s nomads of the Middle East and that’s exactly what they do. They follow the water.It’s all about water for everything living. It’s not as stark in the modern developed world or in climates such as ours, because w

Today was all about the footsteps of Jesus. We left our hotel at 7:30 this morning and went to the Mount of Olives. This was moving for me. While there are many sites that are in doubt, there is no doubt about the Mount of Olives. It is still covered with Olive Trees (it was a grove in Jesus’ time), some that are still being harvested. Jesus spent a lot of time here. When he visited Jerusalem, Luke tells us that he would spend the days in the city and then retreat to this pla

Today was our first day in Jerusalem.  There is so much to see here that we know we won’t get it all in. I’ve already learned so much that I can’t catalog it all in my brain just yet. I thought I was pretty familiar with the city and the country without having been here. But I now realize how little I knew.Our guide wisely started us off at the Jerusalem Museum of Antiquities where they have an outdoor 50:1 scale model of the city as it was in 66AD, before the Jewish revolt w

It’s only when you’re small, that you can be big.Jesus taught that. And it was a theme in the things we saw today.We started off visiting the Ein Harod springs,  where Gideon thinned his army from 10,000 fighting men to a mere 300, before miraculously defeating the Midianites. You remember the story of how God told Gideon to have the men drink from the stream of water, and only those who drank from their cupped hands would be chosen? It happened right here.From there we trave