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.

Thank you for checking out my blog and I hope that you will also check my website at;


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Friday, March 29, 2013

 “The Power and the Promise of the Cross”
1 Cor. 1:17-25

    The Apostle Paul has said; “we preach Christ” and the power of the Cross! The power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the back-bone, the foundation of our faith!  Paul says “the message of the Cross is fool-ishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”…In 1st. Cor. 15:17 he says “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; and you are still in your sins”. If there is no resurrection, then there is no power…Yet, I am able – some two thousand and more years later – to tell you that the greatest story ever told is also the truest story ever told!... It is a story that stands unequaled in the history of man… It is a story that God knows we need to hear and a journey we need to make every year… to find the power and the promises of the Cross.  There is saving power to be found in the Cross for sure, but because God raised Jesus from the dead, there is power through his Holy Spirit, made available in every area of life to accomplish everything that God has planned for our life.
    Satan hates the Cross. We found that our in our previous series on “Satan’s Whispers”… Satan despises those who preach it, and he will use every trick in the book to deceive and keep people from experiencing and exercising the power of the Cross in their lives. Satan knows that when we get “plugged in” to the power of the Cross it gives us intellectual power! That’s right! People who understand the power of the Cross are smarter! People who have an under-standing of God’s Word are able to make smarter, wiser, choices and make better decisions in life; and thereby avoiding the consequences of wrong choices and decisions.
    The power of the Cross is a transforming power. It will transform our thinking…It will transform the way we feel about ourselves; our families; our friends; our neighbors; and our world! In doing so, it will trans-form the way we act! The power of the Cross is all about change! And, the manifestation, or the measure of that change is fruit! It is simple; No change, no fruit, NO CHRIST!
    The power of the Cross is also an overcoming power. It gives us the power through the Holy Spirit to overcome habits, attitudes and even handicaps that can hinder our relationship with God and with others. The good news is that you don’t have to overcome all of those things before you can come to God! You don’t have to “clean yourself up” before you can experience the power of the Cross; that’s what the power of the Cross is for! That is what God does in and through and with us – after we come to the Cross – to bring us to the place in life he created us to be and to have and to do! “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, to do good works, (listen) which God prepared in advance for us to do!” God has a plan for your life. God has things prepared for you to do. The Bible says that “no mind can conceive what God has prepared for those who love him”… But nothing will ever change in your life unless you first come to the Cross!
    Because of the power of the Cross, we have been given some promises. Promises in God’s Word that are available to everyone – because we serve a risen Savior.
I. My past is forgiven and forgotten!  Because of sin, we owe a debt…we deserve punishment…there is no way that we can be forgiven and be made right with God outside of the Cross. Colossians 2:13 and 14 tell us “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, he took it away, nailing it to the Cross”. Hebrews 8:12 – “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
II. I have been given new life and a better life in Christ Jesus. John 10:10 – “I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly”! “Therefore if any-one is in Christ, he is a new creation;” (2 Cor. 5:17 We are restored to the original intent of God when he created man in His image. Someone may say “Well I have seen many Christians who don’t look any different to me!”… That’s because they haven’t allowed what’s in their head to reach their heart! We need to make God and God’s Word and Jesus – God’s Son – personal… “Jesus came and died on the Cross to pay the penalty for MY sin… and He rose from the dead so I could have eternal life and life here and now more abundantly! Because of the Cross, God has restored ME to original condition… I am a new creation! Given a new life! Given a chance to start over! To make things right and do things right! He has given me a chance to serve Him with the skills and gifts and talents that He has given me and created me with; that I might use them for his glory and not mine! He is God, and I am not!  It’s all about Him, and not about me! That’s what personalizing the Cross will do in our lives, if we allow it to move the 18 inches between our head and our heart.
III. We have the assurance of heaven. John 20:31 “These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”…The entire Book of 1st John is about assurance. The words “And we know” appear over and over…And the Book ends with these words in chapter 5 verse 13 – “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

    If the Holy Spirit has been speaking to your heart this day, and you know that these words are true…
Don’t resist the power of the Cross; it is a power unto salvation…able to save completely those who would submit to the grace of Almighty God…It gives us an intellectual power to make good and right decisions in life…The power of the Cross will transform your life, and give you the power to overcome habits and handi-caps in your life that not only are destroying you…but your family as well…God has a better plan for your life… He wants to change you and give you another chance at life…this life and the life to come.
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