My Top Reads from 2013

As the New Year begins and as we spend time looking back on the happenings of 2013, we’ll often reflect on the major moments that occurred in our lives the last 12 months. And while 2013 held much in store for me (graduating from seminary, moving 450 miles back home to San Francisco, and getting […]

Duck Dynasty and Anti-Christian Sentiments: How Christians can Respond with Integrity and Dignity

On Wednesday morning, A&E Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson was suspended indefinitely from the show for comments he made in an interview with GQ magazine over his views on sin and homosexuality (you can read the whole interview here, as well as the suspension details from both a Christian and secular perspective). After being asked the […]

Corrective Lenses: Reading the Bible like we "read" Art? (Part 2 of OT Tactics)

Janet (my, now, fiancee) and I love art; modern art, to be exact. But the way we love art is slightly different: I love how the colors come together to form one cohesive picture. I love how an abstract piece of modern art can take on various meanings and significances the longer I gaze upon […]

What are these 39 books for? (Part 1 of Old Testament Tactics)

Early on in my faith, during my late junior high and early high school years, I used to have a tiny black Bible I would carry around with me in my back pocket. Being a young believer and hungry to learn, I would mark up that Bible every time I opened it – underlining sentences, […]

4 Ways to Encourage Your Pastor in His Task of Preaching

Last week I had the joy of preaching for my youth students in our bi-monthly Youth Sunday Worship. Since Sunday preaching comes about 2-3 times a month, I often look forward to the weeks I get to work through the Word and preach to my church. However, the task is not always all fun and […]

I’m back from my short-term missions trip! …Now what?

A couple weeks ago, a group of us from my church’s mission committee took a trip to Mexico to survey the work our missionary contact is doing down there, and consider future partnership together. As we were wrapping things up on our last day, I was suddenly reminded of all the short-term trips I had […]

Why God doesn’t give me the perfect __________.

If God gave me the perfect home, I would have no need for my eternal home in heaven. If God gave me the perfect church, I wouldn’t long for the perfect fellowship awaiting with the saints. If God made me the perfect pastor, my church would have no need for the perfect Shepherd, and I would have […]

When I don’t want to worship…

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to preach to our whole congregation at Sunset Church. While at other times I might consider this a privilege, the past week in preparation felt more like torture. A large reason was because I was assigned the dreaded text of Romans 9. While I was fairly confident in my ability […]

"Why should I go on short-term missions?" (3 Reasons why NOT to go)

My very first short-term mission trip was in 2003 when I was in high school. Our team, like many other high school mission trips, went to Mexico to build houses, lay down some water piping, and hold a VBS for the local kids. I remember the anticipation leading up to that trip, and the things […]

Spring… the season of Missions!

It’s that season again. The sun is up longer, the weather is getting warmer, birds are chirping, flowers are blooming – allergies are acting up… Spring has arrived! In our generation of Disney movies, happily ever after, and hopeless romantics, Spring is often associated with love. However, for some reason, since my college days in […]