About me

I was born and raised in Northern (Superior) Wisconsin about 80 miles from the Canadian border; and, yes it gets very cold there! At the young age of 32 I began to feel called into ministry. One night at a church dinner, my wife Judy and I sat at a table next to our district superintendent. In the course of our conversation, he said that he had a small church that needed someone to supply the pulpit until he could appoint a new pastor. My pastor suggested that maybe I could do that. I agreed, and two Sundays later, my wife and I drove to that small rural church. Little did we know that I would fill the pulpit in that church for thirteen years!

I have now been in the ministry for 35 years after also serving churches in Virginia and Maryland. I am currently retired...well, sort of. In my retirement, I am now serving as part-time Pastor of First Evangelical Covenant Church in Superior Wi. I began writing books about seven years ago, and still enjoy speaking and teaching when I can. My wife Judy passed away in 2021and I have since remarried to My wife Crystal.

I have a deep desire to help people grow in their faith and knowledge of God’s Word. My books are what I call a “Quest for Discipleship”. As I said, I am a published author and I have nineteen books which include my latest called "Tell Me, Show Me, Fill Me, Change Me"; "In It For Life"; “By His Hand”; “Show and Tell”; “The Promised Gift”; “Jars of Clay”; “The Kingdom of God”; “From the Pastor’s Desk”; “More From the Pastor’s Desk”; "T.E.A.M."; "Let Earth Receive Her King"; "Therefore" "Principles from Proverbs"; "God's Top ten"; "Prayer Changes Things", "5 R's of Revelation" and two "Renewed Faith" 90 day devotionals all by Life Ministries Publishing.

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Thursday, March 14, 2013

“The Four People Inside Of Me”
 Galatians 2:20 and Eph. 4:17-24

    I received an excellent book from some church friends for Christmas a few years ago, by Max Lucado, called “Just Like Jesus”. The basis of the book is that “God loves you just the way you are, but he refuses to leave you that way. He wants us to be just like Jesus.” Max Lucado poses a question in the very first chapter that is very intriguing, “What if, for one day, Jesus were to become you?” What if for 24 hours, Jesus walks in your shoes…lives in your house… assumes your schedule…works your job…. What if, he lives your life with his heart?… His priorities govern your actions; His passions drive your decisions; His love directs your behavior; Would people notice a change?  Would they see something new?  Let me put our two scriptures for this morning together; “Surely you were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God For (you) have been crucified with Christ and (you) no longer live, but Christ lives in (you).”  I see two real; problems  with this;
    First,  I think that many of us, who call ourselves Christians, spend far too much time trying to “put off the old self” and not nearly enough time “Putting on the new self!” One requires a lot of “will power” and the other requires living in God’s power!  Many people don’t understand the difference.  “Putting off the old self” is something we must do…While “Putting on the new self” is something we allow God to do - in part-nership with us - while we spend more and more time with Him. “Putting on the new self” requires a sincere desire to spend as much time as we can with God…in church; in study; in prayer; in worship; all allowing God to “renew us by the “transforming of our minds” as Romans 12:2 says. That’s what “putting on the new self” really means, but, we spend much more time trying to “put off the old self.” If we spend more time putting on the new self, the old self will disappear on its own.
    Second, we have this problem of the four people who live inside of us; One is the “person I want you to think I am.” The second is the “person you think I am or could become.” Third is the “person I know that I am.” And, the fourth is the “person I really want to become.” These are what I want to focus on this morning.
    First, is the person I want you to think I am. This is what we would call the “hypocrite” within us. The manipulator, the pretender, who tries to present an image to others of something he really is not. Not only does this person within me try to deceive others, it also tries to deceive me into thinking I am something I am not!  (That reminds me of the man who told the pastor that he doesn’t go to church because there are so many hypocrites there. The pastor responded by saying, “Oh, don’t let that stop you. There’s always room for one more.” ) A hypocrite is someone who tries to manufacture Christian behavior; who tries to “put on the new self” on their own… One who thinks to “put on the new self” means acting a certain way; doing and saying certain things; one who tries to fit into the mold of what a Christian is viewed to be… and who tries to “be the kind of person I want you to think I am.” But, a real Christian is a person who knows that God will give you the desire and the power to change the old self to the new self, without pretense; without trying to make people think we are something we are not…I like to think it is because if Christ is truly living in me, He and my “old self” cannot co-exist! I know that I am a work in progress, and I don’t have to pretend to be anything else!
    The second person living in me is the “person you think I am or could become”.  This is where some of our “blind spots” are. This area has its good qualities and it’s bad. It has its strengths and its weaknesses… many of which we can’t see. This person is not always the same as the person I want you to think I am!  The person you think I am or can become, may have great potential for personal and spiritual growth, if properly nourished with a balance of encouragement and discipline.  But, unless you are real and honest with me, and tell me who you think I am or can become, I will remain the person I want you to think I am! In other words, I may remain a pretender because I believe everyone believes my facade. The problem is that the “old self” continues to make itself known now and then, and soon people question whether I am a Christian or not!
    The third person inside of me is the person I know that I am.  This is the real me. This is the me I see every day in the mirror. This is the true perception of myself. Some of which I am willing to share, and some of which I am not. This is the person in me who somehow refuses to give up. It is the person in me who exposes my short comings and my faults and weaknesses that I don’t want others to see; so it hides behind person #1 - the person I want you to think I am.  I am afraid to expose this person within me for fear that it would totally change your perspective and your acceptance of me. This person in me is as if in a prison…with the door being open…but afraid to come out; afraid to let go. This is the real “old self” that God is talking about through Paul. And, only God has the power to change and transform this “old self” into the fourth person - who is the person I want to become.
    The person I want to become is the person to whom the whole of God’s Word and the Spirit of God appeal to.  For this is the person God wants us to be as well. This is the person - not only we want to be, but that we know we ought to be…and whom God wants us to be! This person is honest with himself and never puts on airs or pretends anything. “What you see is what you get.” It is when this person - person #4 - the real me is given priority over the other three, that real change takes place, and I am truly “putting on the new self.”  It is the person I want to be - that is affected by God’s Word. It is the person I want to be - whose heart, mind, and emotions are stirred by the Holy Spirit. The question this morning is this; To which person living in me am I most concerned with? To which am I giving priority in my life?
    Perhaps we need to come to the place in our lives where we can truly say “The person I want you to think I am (the hypocritical me) has been crucified with Christ; The person you think I am has been crucified with Christ; The person I know that I am has been crucified with Christ; they no longer live, but Christ lives in me!  Christ lives in me! Because Christ lives in me, the life I now live, I will live by faith in Him…who loved me, and gave himself for me…that I may become the person both I and God want me to be.
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