Lessons from the Other Phil by Phil My very talented and crafty wife has made several customized T-shirts for me, but I haven't gotten her to make me this one yet. Let's be honest, it's not only funny, it's Biblically accurate - if we consider the other Phil, Philip the disciple. We talk a lot about evangelism in the church, the act of sharing our faith with others. It's an important job for Christ followers, and unfortunately, we sometimes do more harm than good with our approach. That's...
12 days ago • 2 min read
What do you do? by Phil Labor Day is fast approaching and that has me thinking. One of the common ice breaker questions in conversation is "What do you do?" This has always been particularly challenging for me to answer. My tax return says I'm a "Musical Evangelist," but I don't have a document that bestows that title on me - I made it up. Am I a singer? Yes. Am I a piano player? Yes. Am I a Minister of Music? I like to think so. But I'm also a woodworker, a graphic designer, a writer, a...
19 days ago • 2 min read
Today is our youngest daughter's birthday! To honor her special day, I thought I'd share one of my favorite memories from when she was a toddler, way back in 2001. Happy Birthday, Alisha! Looking for Leaves by Phil Today at lunch Alisha informed me that we were going for a walk after we finished eating. In reality this means that I will walk and she will ride her big pink tricycle with me pushing on the uphill stretches. It was a beautiful autumn day so she didn't have to twist my arm too...
26 days ago • 1 min read
Critic or Creator? by Phil Have you seen videos of skyscraper demolitions? It's fascinating to watch how with some carefully placed explosives, a towering building will collapse straight down into a cloud of dust. My first thought is admiration for the demolition experts who knew exactly where to place the explosives to bring the building down without damaging the surrounding buildings and landscape. Then I marvel at how something that took hundreds of workers thousands of hours to construct...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Even if... by Phil I recently saw a meme that said, “Fear is What if?, Faith is Even if?” That brought to mind the end of the book of Habbakuk. For even if the fig tree doesn’t blossom, and no fruit is on the vines, even if the olive tree fails to produce, and the fields yield no food at all, even if the sheep vanish from the sheep pen, and there are no cows in the stalls; still, I will rejoice in Adonai (the LORD), I will take joy in the God of my salvation. - Hab 3:17-18 CJB Habbakuk is an...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
It's About Time by Phil Have you ever heard the phrase, "I'll be there in a jiffy?" As goofy as it sounds, a "jiffy" is an actual scientific term. Be prepared to amaze your friends and neighbors with this interesting and mostly useless factoid. Way back in 1926, physical chemist Gilbert Newton Lewis proposed a unit of time called the "jiffy" which was equal to the time it takes light to travel one centimeter in a vacuum (approximately 33.3564 picoseconds). In more modern computer technology,...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Chapter 5 by Phil As a kid growing up in the 1970s, we may have had only three TV channels, but we had something today's youth will never experience - Saturday morning cartoons. Each week I'd go on wild adventures with my friends Tom and Jerry, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Scooby and Shaggy, and my personal favorites - Batman and Robin. "THWACK!" "SPLAT!" "KAPOW!" - oh, the memories. Sometimes the half hour drew to a close with our caped crusaders caught in a perilous situation and the announcer...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Straight and Narrow by Phil Last Sunday our pastor was preaching on Matthew 7:14 and something jumped out at me. This is where we get our phrase, "on the straight and narrow" as the KJV translates this verse, "Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." The CSB and many other translations say, "How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it." Let's check out the original greek to get a better...
2 months ago • 2 min read
A Better Country by Phil Independence Day can be a difficult time for church worship leaders. On one hand, we should be grateful to God for His blessings and the freedom we cherish. Yet, often times our patriotic fervor exhibited in the music and celebration of July 4th can approach the level of worshipping our country instead of the God in whom we say we "trust." The temptation is to either completely ignore any sort of patriotic music or go full steam ahead and try to squeeze God into our...
2 months ago • 2 min read