October 2017

Beloved in Christ, Like many of you, I spent last evening watching the election returns and slowly adjusting to the reality of an event I had considered as a possibility, but not necessarily expected - the election of Donald Trump as the next president of our nation. Now that twenty-four hours has passed and we've all had a little time to adjust to what God, in his providence, has ordained for this election, I wanted to write you with a few thoughts. First, this has clearly been one of the more divisive elections in American history (though perhaps not the MOST divisive, consider the Thomas Jefferson - John Adams election of 1800, for example). This divisiveness and the way that has shaped the rhetoric on both sides is one of the most concerning aspects of this election season to me. There is a way to have strong political disagreements without demonizing your opponent or his or her supporters, but I am not sure that kind of righteous and loving disagreement has characterized much of the rhetoric we've heard on the airwaves, websites or social media over the last year. Each us should consider our own words and actions in this regard and remember the power of…

July 8, 2016 Dear Colleyville Family, Last night we experienced what is probably the greatest tragedy in our metropolitan area since the murder of President Kennedy more than fifty years ago.  Men of violence plotted together and then sat and waited in cold blood to ambush and murder innocent police officers - five of whom are now dead. This kind of wickedness and evil is terrifying, and it's almost unimaginable that something like this could take place so close to where we live and work.  I don't know about you, but I still feel almost in shock this morning, as though all of this is a nightmare that isn't real and I will soon wake up from. But it is real, and it is terrible. And so today we grieve. We grieve for the loss of innocent human life. We grieve for the women who are now widows. We grieve for the children who are now fatherless. We grieve that we live in a world where wickedness and evil seems to so often have the upper hand. We grieve because although the power of death has been broken, death has not yet been fully defeated. But today, in your grief,…