In his best-selling book, The Shack, author William Paul Young deliberately uses a fictitious story with a high degree of literary imagery concerning the Trinity and how each person within the Godhead might appear to a man drowning in a whirlpool of personal grief and pain. Did I mention that The Shack is fictitious? If not, please hear me, “The Shack is a work of fiction. The story is completely made up by the author.” While many people have found this a comforting way to portray and understand God’s love and grace, the appearance of God the Father as... [Read more]
Yesterday I gave one of the shortest speeches of my life, but it seemed like the longest and it turned me inside out. My youngest daughter got married and, here in Britain, it’s customary for the father of the bride to give a speech extolling the virtues of his daughter and welcoming the groom into the family. I did alright with the humorous parts, but I quickly lost it when I began talking about my daughter and son-in-law. Quite a few people told me afterward that they cried right along with me. Several people asked if my tears were the result of giving away my last... [Read more]
Now everyone’s going to think I’m really a “Shack fanboy” and that’s okay…’cause I really love the message of this little book and the impact it’s having around the world. A small work of fiction, The Shack was written by a fifty-year-old man at the insistence of his wife to explain his core convictions of God’s unconditional love and grace, after going through years of personal failure and the ensuing pain of feeling outside the reach of restoration. So he wrote it all down in an effort to spare them the pain of forty years... [Read more]
This past Sunday in Wales, a group of elders gathered at their church building to pray. The ancient stone chapel had been without heating since a group of construction workers shut off the gas supply to the building earlier in the week, then forgot to turn it back on for the weekend. It was judged to be too cold for the morning worship service—scheduled two hours later—so the local telephone lines began blazing with elders contacting members of the church leadership team, who contacted small group leaders, who contacted everyone within their house group. It was decided... [Read more]
Living in the United Kingdom for the past four years has been a wonderful experience, but I love Southern-style foods and I especially miss Southern breakfast fare! So with the proverbial American “can do” attitude, I thought to myself, “How hard can this be?” One of my latest cravings has been “Jimmy Dean Sausage,” the original sage recipe that can be fried and served in the following ways: as sausage patties served alongside a couple of eggs and/or pancakes or stuffed inside a tasty buttermilk biscuit. Mmmmm! You can also crumble the... [Read more]
When I got up this morning, I began browsing my Flickr groups to see what others had posted over the last week or so, and I found this image (below) taken recently by a friend of mine. Jan and her husband love to go “trekking” or hill climbing all over Wales, which usually results in some stunning images; however, the caption on this one shook a few cobwebs loose from my “shepherd” paradigm. The modern shepherd on his all-terrain motorcycle I looked at this photograph and began thinking about how to describe this modern shepherd compared to my stereotypical... [Read more]
Over the past thirty-seven years of my journey with the Lord, I can count on one hand the number of books that I could honestly say, “Every Christian should read this!” With over 1,000 books in my library, I have chosen most of them for their theological integrity versus their ranking on the New York Times Bestseller list. If I could only own three or four books plus a Bible, I would choose The Pleasures of God (John Piper), The Pilgrim’s Progress (John Bunyan), The Jesus I Never Knew (Philip Yancey), and The Shack (William P. Young). The Shack is one... [Read more]
What does Hebrews 10:25 mean in relationship to our weekly church worship services? Does the New Testament command these weekly gatherings or have we simply assumed something that the biblical writer (and the Holy Spirit) never intended to say? As someone involved in church leadership, even on a denominational level, for many years, I need answers to these questions. Are we talking about something that is a cherished custom or is it more than that: a biblical command? Here’s what the Bible says in various translations: Let us not give up meeting together, as some... [Read more]
The state executive director-treasurer for the Florida Baptist Convention (FBC) recently sent every pastor in the state a 4-disc collection of CDs by prominent Jacksonville pastor, Dr. Jerry Vines, on “Baptist Battles” with the subtitle, “Liberalism, Calvinism, Pentecostalism, and Libertinism.” While his message, “Calvinism: A Baptist and His Election,” represents only one of four strategic battles addressed by Vines, it represents serious charges that are jointly endorsed, funded by, and promoted as “helpful” by Dr. John... [Read more]
