Greetings Narrow Gate, Well I just had my annual check up. I like my doctor, she's a PA. She's nice, seems genuinely concerned about me, and quick and efficient. I like her. But I do not like going to see her. I am a bad patient. I listen, do what I should minimally to keep her off my back, then I do what I want to. After my car wreck, I told the nurses, and my wife, I was not going to stay in the hospital more than 1 night, and I did exactly that. I'm stubborn. Me being a ba

Greetings Narrow Gate, Well, as a country, our new year did not get of to a good start. What happened this last week was a debacle. I'm not going to blame anyone in particular. Because we all are to blame. If you don't understand this, you are more to blame than you realize. You are in denial. No matter which side of the aisle you are on. As a pastor and a US citizen I am deeply concerned about what I am seeing. One hobby of mine is military history. As a military historian,

Greetings Narrow Gate, Whew, I made it. I made it into 2021. I did not think 2021 would ever get here. Guess what? If you are reading this, you made it too! So congratulations all around. Today I want to start the year of with a prayer for Narrow Gate, Opportunity House and everyone remotely associated with us. But first some scripture. Just one verse from Job. I picked Job because it has been a Job like year for me. This verse is an enigmatic verse. Bildad, the speaker, is

Greetings Narrow Gate, Merry Christmas! Today I want to do something different. Rather than lay a devotion and some scripture on you, I would like to just pray with the Narrow Gate community and those others who view this email. Before I get started, allow me to be Captain Obvious: This is a different Christmas. It is so radically different from any we've had since the end of WW II. Our war now is not with nations, but with a virus. Food, gasoline, and materials are not ratio

Greetings Narrow Gate, I pray that you each are doing well and looking forward to Christmas. We all know that this can be difficult time for many people. This year especially. I would encourage us each to be open to the Spirit of God, ready to recognize and intervene and bless those who are in need. It's funny, but for many of us, we put a great deal of planning into Christmas. Some of us shop year round. Some of us even shop for next Christmas, the very day after this Christ

Greetings Narrow Gate, Christmas blessings to you all. I miss our Narrow Gate worship and I miss each one of you. I recently read a report that said by May of 2021, this pandemic might finally be drawing to a close. Vaccines and effective treatments will be readily available to those who need them most. These will then have a cumulative effect upon our herd immunity that will slow the spread of this virus. Whether or not this is true, I cannot say for sure. But I will surely

Today, as we finish the week that so many of us look forward to with such great anticipation, the family gatherings, the great meals, football, gluttony, family infighting and of course, shopping for Christmas in earnest: I would like for us to reflect and compare. Because this year, with Covid 19, we are going to have a Thanksgiving and a Christmas that are very different from any that we’ve ever experienced. For some of us, maybe most of us, this will be a difficult Christm

Greetings Narrow Gate, There are events in everyone's lives that are seminal moments. These are moments that cause us to reflect, and maybe change the way we are living, whether it's bad to good or good to bad, or something else. The birth of your first child, a wedding, a death of a spouse, a separation or divorce are just a few examples of these moments. The trajectory of our lives can change. Attitudes and opinions can change. My accident a few weeks back was a seminal mom

Greetings Narrow Gate, I am writing this the day after the elections, 11/4/2020. Nothing decided as of yet. The lawyers on both sides are already moving to take over the process of determining our next President of the United States. One thing is clear to me. We have to source out our own news. Election night was a debacle. In Germany and Russia of the 30s and 40s, the saying was "If you see it in print, it's not the truth". It is that way now with most of our news media (plu

Greetings Narrow Gate, We covered a great deal of ground last week in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. We began by looking at our fear concerning the election results. Fear belongs to Satan, not Jesus. So, I want us to focus today on where we ended up last week, which is with the mind of Christ. If Jesus is the one who helps us not to fear, his mind will give us great insights into how this happens. I have taken an outline from the website GotQuestions.org., and I will fill in this

Greetings Narrow Gate, I pray everyone is well and healthy. My accident occurred two weeks after this writing. As I am writing this (10/5), I am trying to figure out what will be happening in a few weeks, regarding the election. I am guessing something wild will happen, unpredictable, surprising, something that sends the political world and the world, into a tizzy. President Trump has just gone home from the hospital. The latest poll came out, stating exactly what it did four

Greetings Narrow Gate, Whew, what a week. I'll keep the health update brief. I have bruises that look like tattoos. Thursday was the low point, I went backwards in pain and energy. Bruises and almost a jaundiced look seemed to bubble up from inside my body. Coughing hurts, but sneezing seems to stop everything because the pain is so great. It takes me 10-15 minutes to recover from a sneeze. However, I am improving every day. I started walking 20 minutes a day two days ago. It

Greetings Narrow Gate, I pray you all are well and that you continue to love the Lord with all your heart. This is an exciting week, we are firing up Narrow Gate again. I want to thanks all of you who have volunteered. It's different, but that's not a bad thing. We'll be fellowshipping and loving God and each other. it's a good place to restart. Let's bathe this in prayer shall we? I'm going to do something different today. I am going to extensively cite an old sermon of Dr.

Greetings Narrow Gate, I continue to miss you all. I pray for you daily and look forward to when we may gather together again. In the meantime, communicate with one another and share your needs and concerns. Pray for one another regularly. Therein lies the central component to fellowship, loving our fellow believers. Matthew 22:38-40, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your mind'. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the sec

Greetings Narrow Gate, I pray that each of you is well and and remaining, as much as possible, within the body of Christ. Today I would like to continue our look into fellowship and its importance to the believer. Last week we looked at the critical nature that fellowship plays as a means of perseverance for the child of God. Less fellowship means that less perseverance, less stamina is available and the believer becomes weaker in faith. No fellowship can mean that no perseve

Greetings Narrow Gate, I pray this past week has gone well for you all. I know that many of you are still not back in church. Being absent from the body of Christ manifests itself physically (spiritually, emotionally and psychologically) in all of us. I'm sure that this manifestation plays out differently in all of us. Some of us are frustrated, cranky, depressed, sick, lonely, confused, and a myriad of other symptoms. Some of us may be all of these things. I wonder if the a

Greetings Narrow Gate, I miss you all and pray for you all during this pandemic and subsequent self isolation, oh, and time of extreme chaos and condemnation. The world is full of condemnation. It always has been. With the technological advent of the cell phone camera, we have the ability to witness a vivid stream of condemnation 24 hours per day, seven days a week. Some of us are really into this, especially during the pandemic, sitting and viewing these angst filled violent

Greetings Narrow Gate, I pray you are all well and staying close to Jesus. I miss the Narrow Gate fellowship very much, as I am sure all of you do also. Believe me, we are working hard to get something up and running for Narrow Gate. As of right now, I have no definite details to pass along. In the meantime, keep praying. I pray for you all everyday, please know this. It has been a long time since we've been together. Soon, very soon, I am going to write about our need for fe

Greetings Narrow Gate, It's funny when you fall. No, let me rephrase that. It's funny when you fall and everyone realizes that you're not hurt seriously. I've been catching quite a ribbing from my friends at OH. My wife, in the ER, after the CAT scan and x-ray came back negative, looked at me and asked, "since nothing's broken can I laugh now?" I had had 2 and a half doses of morphine in me so I was ready to laugh, which we did. I guarantee you that we were the only folks lau

Greetings Narrow Gate, I greet you all in Jesus' name. I pray that you and your families are healthy, and that the beginning of the school year has gone well for you. Our mid to late August prayer lists used to be filled with requests for students, bus drivers and teachers and administrators. All back on the road again. With the return of school, our traffic patterns would change drastically in our neighborhoods, especially in those areas nearest to the schools. Not today, wi