Gifts of the Spirit ACTIVATED

I LOVE IT WHEN CHURCHES send short term workers here to Southeast Asia. It’s our chance to serve those in America who have sacrificed for us to be here. We are committed to giving the folks back home a life-changing glimpse of the world beyond America’s borders. Over the years, we’ve seen some Spirited teams, and one group stands out in recent memory.

The Truth Will Set You Free to Improvise

Today is Sunday, my day of REST. So its time to have some fun and think about something unusual, out of my normal life pattern. Rarely do I get to listen to some of history’s greatest creative prodigies talk freely about the creative process. This interview with Bill Evans (1929-1980) is worth watching. He was a brilliant and innovative jazz pianist, and one of the most influential creative forces in the history of jazz. His insights into the creative process extend way beyond music. In this video he is talking about jazz technique, but I’m thinking about my life, relationships and work. Notice his persistent idea that the jazz innovation emerges from truth. Here, an artist talks about truth in the realm of music much in the same way that a theologian talks about truth in theology. To me that’s

The Anchor of the Soul

 In “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for …” (Hebrews 11:1) In the closing weeks of World War II, the American cruiser U.S.S. Indianapolis was churning westward in the Pacific Ocean en route to the Philippines.  Just after midnight, an enemy submarine emerged into the balmy air and launched two torpedoes into …

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A New Creationism

Each morning, we are offered the chance to rise up and worship the Creator. He is so vast and glorious, and yet he is concerned today with the smallest details of our lives. Nothing is beyond the reach of the Artist’s paintbrush. Woven into the entire fabric of divine revelation are tantalizing glimpses of