This week I started teaching another online class for the Masters of Family Life Education program of Concordia University Wisconsin/Ann Arbor. So far I am highly impressed by the character and faith of my nine students. It’s great to hear their stories of real life and how God is using them to pass on His awesome love to others. It’s reaffirming to hear that the instruction found in my book, Handing Out Life, is relevant to the...

This past Tuesday I had the privilege to speak to a good number of the 900 teachers and support staff from the Grand Blanc public schools about leadership. I was at one of twenty-four stations along a “scavenger hunt” around town to learn about positive character traits. The overall event was part of a national campaign called the “Positivity Project.” I was thrilled by how receptive everyone was to my message about...

Hope is elusive for many people. It will ALWAYS be out of reach if we rely on the promises and power of men. However, in Jesus Christ there is ALWAYS the sure and certain hope of wonderful things ahead. We KNOW we will be with Jesus in heaven for eternity. His death and resurrection guarantee it. The gift of faith received in Baptism and the Word of God assures us that Jesus’ gift IS ours for free. We also have certain hope that Jesus will...

“The Great Deceiver” is the name of a Bible study that several other men and I started this week. It focuses on how the devil, Satan, Lucifer…is VERY real and is an expert at deception. His greatest trick is to lure people into the deception that there is NO devil, NO punishment for sin, NO hell and NO Savior (since there’s no need for one). Jesus, as our Savior, is pointless. We can do what we want. When we die, we...

Icon = a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol of something. Every relationship in your life is to be an “icon” of the relationship between Jesus and His beloved bride, the church. The way you love others is to reflect the way Jesus loves you. Our love, like the love of Jesus, is to be sacrificial, unconditional and incarnational. We’re to give up our own self-love. We’re to love others no matter what....

Don’t let anyone fool you. It happens at any age. It’s the struggle of parents over how much to intervene in the decisions of their children. Should I stop my toddler before he grabs the burning hot cookie? Should I keep my pre-teen daughter from talking to the boy who’s using her for her brains? Should I make my child go to bed when it’s obvious the morning will come too soon? Should I rush to the jail to make bail for...