Being the youngest of three boys, I could never match my brother’s physically so I compensated verbally. I don’t like to think of myself as violent, but when I was pinned down by one of my brothers, unable to wrestle out what felt like an eternal death grip [1] , I had two options; 1) the obviously more pathetic option to scream for a parent or 2) fight back with my tongue. It didn’t take all too long to develop a sharp tongue that could bruise deeper than any “accidental” fist to the...

I don’t know about you, but I often think of Ephesians as the book between Galatians and Philippians. Galatians and Philippians are these Pauline pillars; written to specific peoples for specific reasons. Galatians and Philippians criticize and uplift with such precision. They give us passages we couldn’t forget if we tried; the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 and the Kenosis hymn in Philippians 4. Were I composing the order of our Canon, I don’t know that I’d place Ephesians between...

I grew up in a parsonage. Fortunately, and rather uncommonly, my whole childhood was raised in the same town and the same church. When I first became a pastor I thought that my childhood had introduced me well enough to this role. Oh how wrong I was… I had no clue what this role would mean until I stepped into it. And all of a sudden memories of my father’s 23 year pastorate came flooding in; memories I hadn’t remembered. One story that has come to mid frequently and recently is that of a...