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There are certain places in the Bible where simple observations are made about mankind.  These observations don’t represent prohibitions but rather suggest that there are certain conditions in which the human experience is simply better.  One of the first of these observations occurs in the Garden of Eden, when God says “It is not good… Continue reading Pastor’s Perspective May 29, 2025

Have you ever thought about when you were at your best over the course of your life?  It is definitely a subjective question, revolving around your concept of what best means.  For some people, particularly if they are facing various degrees of physical degradation, may think back to their mid-twenties, when their bodies were strong… Continue reading Pastor’s Perspective May 22, 2025

As a pastor who preaches and teaches the Bible, I have to be very careful when it comes to the definitions of words found within Scripture.  One of the challenges is that our understanding of what words mean can evolve, which is one reason why modern translators will occasionally need to update the phrasing of… Continue reading Pastor’s Perspective May 15, 2025

On occasion, I will look up recipes online in the quest to find something new to fix for dinner.  It is like having all the cook books you could ever need at your fingertips, searched immediately according to your desired parameters.  The one big difference from the traditional cook book approach, however, is the opportunity… Continue reading Pastor’s Perspective May 8, 2025

Life on a small, bridgeless island is not without challenges.  We do have some stores, and some services, but what we have available to us here is extremely limited, particularly when compared to the mainland.  When there is prior notice that we will need something that we don’t have available to us on the island,… Continue reading Pastor’s Perspective May 1, 2025

There are certain career fields where you can engage in your work, very confident of the outcome.  Chemists, working in the confines of sterile surroundings, working with pure chemical compounds, can be very confident of what they will create when they combine certain compounds in certain volumes in certain orders.  The same can be said… Continue reading Pastor’s Perspective April 24, 2025

This Sunday, perhaps billions of Christians around the world will be in church to celebrate Easter, commemorating the day that Jesus walked out of the tomb.  It is the holiest of days on the Christian calendar, celebrating Jesus’ triumph over the grave, signifying God’s approval of the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross to… Continue reading Pastor’s Perspective April 17, 2025

In a nation that has been so focused on work for the last few centuries, it is difficult to detach our personal identity from our vocation.  If you think about it, when you meet someone new, the first three questions are typically “What’s your name? Where are you from? What do you do?”  As we… Continue reading Pastor’s Perspective April 10, 2025

Every Wednesday I have lunch with a group of men at our church.  The format is quite simple – I arrive about a half-hour early to fire up the grill and get the burgers cooking so that when the guys arrive at noon, the food is ready.  We bless the food, sit down and eat,… Continue reading Pastor’s Perspective April 3, 2025

Some friends of mine who do not live on the island but have been to our church services on multiple occasions recently asked for my opinion about finding a new church home.  They are moving from their current urban setting to a more suburban location, and as they were considering new churches, they found themselves… Continue reading Pastor’s Perspective March 27, 2025