This week I attended the General Membership Luncheon put on by the Chamber of Commerce, it included a dessert auction for the United Way of the Tanana Valley Annual Giving Campaign.  It’s a fun event that happens each year.  People donate remarkably, delicious desserts and the crowd bids on them.  Some cakes went for over $1,000!  I’m told $11,025 was raised for the campaign.  That money goes to t...

A fascinating little book in the Bible is from the prophet Habakkuk. He lived at atime of great wickedness in the Jewish southern kingdom of Judah. He lookedaround and saw all the injustice and oppression that was occurring among hisbeloved people. He cried out to God to do something. I am not sure what answerHabakkuk expected, but I do know that God’s answer was a surprise. God told theprophet th...

      This week I have been studying the short book of Haggai.  This little-known prophet Haggai was called to prod the Jewish people who had returned from exile in Babylon to restart their project to rebuild the temple of God.  They were commanded to rebuild a physical temple, the central worship center for Israel. Most of us are called to rebuild something in our lives.  Is there an area of your...

      Can we all agree that there are some serious problems with mankind?  We listen to the news for even a few minutes, and we see stories of crime and cruelty.  The wickedness and brokenness are not just out there within “them,” but it’s warped all of us.  We look in the mirror and see a person who is sometimes proud, impatient, unkind and selfish.  God made man is His image, beautiful, unique, ...

     I recently spent some time in Indiana where I grew up.  I had the privilege of reconnecting with old friends again.  While there my eighty-one-year-old mother asked me to drive her an hour to visit a long-time friend of hers.  I took her to see her friend who now lives in a memory care unit in Plainfield, IN.  When we got to the room her friend lit up with recognition.  She could not remember...