I was raised in southeast Idaho in a stable Mormon home. At age 19, I left home to serve a two-year Mormon mission in northern Japan. I held multiple positions of leadership in the Mormon church both before and after my return. At the age of 30, questioning the Mormon faith (and God...
With children returning to school and our landscape aflame with a bright palette of changing colors; fall is upon us. Our lives consist of different seasons! Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us that “for everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.” (NRSV) Solomon...
I think we can all relate to stories, so I thought it would be helpful to share with you a story about how a Stephen Minister so wonderfully and personally provided a reminder of God’s presence in the midst of someone’s painful circumstances. We’ve seen this happen over and...
The Bible holds stories that are difficult for us to digest either because, in our eyes, they are too gory, too unkind, too harsh or simply too annoying that God was ok with that!In Genesis, there’s the story of the forbidden fruit and Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Why God would...
I began studying God’s Word in October 1982, when I was invited by a friend to Bible Study Fellowship (which I had never heard of). I had attended church for about three years as a teenager with my family when my dad became a Christian, but I walked away from the church when I...
The summer is almost over! Soon it will be September, and we will be saying goodbye to all this heat and summer fun. Fall will begin to set in and with it will come the cooler days and eventually the rain. Trees will start to lose their leaves in preparation for winter.
I was thinking...
“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances;for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV
Last June my dad died. We were not in touch much of my adult years. When he died, It hurt. I was thinking of what we could have...
When I retired, I bought a motorcycle, and took a class through Team Oregon to renew what I thought I had learned when I had owned my first motorcycle as a young man. I was amazed how little I knew about the physics of motorcycle riding.
Over the next year or so, I went on some very challenging...
One of the many blessings that have come to me in watching The Chosen, is that I am more aware than ever of Jesus’s humanity. I never thought about Jesus doing the menial everyday things that people normally do. How many of us would picture Jesus alone in the wilderness, rubbing sticks...
I am very encouraged of late in our vision as a church of developing more and more into a church truly committed to discipleship. From our very beginning we have always valued discipleship at Greater Portland Bible Church. As leaders we have a renewed passion to see us as a church of disciple...