7:54 AM Joanne Hale writes from Whittier, CA, wondering why I haven’t mentioned the boys in a while. Hmmmm. Nick wanted to know the same thing last night. He pointed out that I had not mentioned the fact that just before my earlier trip to Florida, late one night I was hungry and said I wished I had a chocolate pie. Mark sa…
9:59 AM While cleaning up my computer files, I ran across an article Von Matthews sent the pastors in March 2001. Marshall Shelley wrote an article called “So What Exactly does a pastor do?” Lots of people ask that question—and it is difficult to answer precisely. Shelley includes this quote from Augustine (circa …
8 AM Mark, Josh and Nick took a taxi to Changping to pick up some of Josh’s things that we’re taking back with us. 10:17 AM Marlene, Alan and I are in a taxi heading to Tiananmen Square. This is the final place I wanted to visit on our trip to Beijing because it’s the equivalent of our National Mall in Washington. Each year…
1:25 PM E-mail alert: If you have tried to e-mail the church (office or staff) in the last week and haven’t gotten a response, it’s because our DSL service was out. For almost a week we could not send or receive e-mail from outside the building. The DSL service started working again about a half hour ago. You should receive…
11:43 AM Getting ready to leave for a two-day retreat with the Calvary pastors. We’re going to a home in McHenry for several days of prayer and Bible study, planning, talking, and dreaming together about what God wants to do at Calvary in 2004 and the years to come. These are eventful days in our congregation and our commun…
“Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me” (Luke 8:46). These strange words mean at least this much: Jesus knew God’s power had flowed from him into the body of the woman who touched his garment. Power that had been his passed from him to her. It resulted i…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 200411:05 PM Before I forget, I want to take one last look at the week I spent in Florida. Each morning and evening Graeme Kent from SIM International updated us on what SIM is doing around the world. Great advances for the gospel are being made in Africa and Asia. Computer technology has enabled us to reach more people faster …
6:56 AM Getting ready for my final message and the trip home. Looks like snow and sleet is arriving in Chicago about the time my plane lands. I hope we can slip in (literally) to Midway Airport without too much trouble. This has been a wonderful week in all respects. I wrote earlier about how these aging saints of God have …
11:44 AM Just finished my AM message on “What the World Doesn’t Know” from 1 Corinthians 2:6-9. We’re on the downhill side of the conference–I preach tonight and tomorrow AM, then it’s back to Oak Park. Another beautiful day here. John Ockers dropped off some grapefruit the other night–&…