ABOUT CRYSTAL Some years back, as a chaplain, I met with a young woman for several months in a jail. At the time, she had reached the status of psychotic paranoia due to a drug habit that overwhelmed her. When I started to meet with her, she believed all the guards in the jail were […]
THE MELODY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT I went into downtown Minneapolis in mid-March to hear Erin Keefe perform Beethoven’s Concerto in D Major for Violin and Orchestra, Opus 61. Before the concert began, the Holy Spirit called me to separate myself from everything but the music—for this would be the Melody of the Holy Spirit. […]
ABOUT SHAWN TYLER BENSON Just to remind you, Shawn is the man who killed a woman while he was completely wasted on meth, and later became a born-again Christian in the jail where I served as a volunteer chaplain. He called me last week to tell me a story of how he’s serving God in […]
THE SAFEST PLACE ON EARTH On that day you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.John 14:20 When He was on earth, Jesus was with His apostles and disciples. Jesus is telling them here that when He is taken into heaven, through the power […]
INTENTIONAL Living in the natural world is the default position of every man and woman who has walked this earth since the fall of Adam and Eve. To live in God’s Kingdom here on earth is a choice. It is intentional, like leaving one building and entering another. Just when I think I have that […]
Yours is a Kingdom of love,And we are a world of hate. You are a God of truth,And we are a people of lies. You ask us to go Your way,And we stay on our own chosen path.You say, “Will you follow Me?” We respond, “Maybe sometimes we will.” Will we ever stay close to […]
Don’t Steal a Police Car, Part 2 For the next eight months, I met with Cate every Monday for 45 minutes. She was now saved but needed to be discipled, and she needed to learn the essentials of Scripture. We also talked about her court hearings that popped up every couple of months as the […]
The 4-H Club I was on a phone call with a friend from Texas yesterday, and he told me he was now a member of the 4-H Club. Given that he’s a physician and wouldn’t know a haystack from a bushel of wheat, I was a bit mystified until he told me what he meant. […]
HISTORY LESSON—THE HOLOCAUST On the way to the VA (Veterans Administration) and back, forty miles both ways. What happened to the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust? I asked the Holy Spirit as I left my house in the early morning and headed to St. Cloud, Minnesota. Then I stilled my mind and waited […]
ABOUT JUDAS On my drive to the VA in St. Cloud and back last week, I asked the Holy Spirit to give me another installment of what I call God’s History Lessons. I don’t give Him the subject matter; He gives it to me. And I don’t get a word-for-word “Thus sayeth the Lord,” from […]