A stroll through the cemetery
Our family walked to the store recently. The day was bright but cool and the kids collected rocks as they walked. After the first turn in the road, I announced that we would take a quick stroll through the cemetery. We are currently on break at SIL’s missionary base in the Highlands, called Ukarumpa. We visit the cemetery every time we come, some would say it has become a Lehman tradition. The cemetery is positioned between towering pine trees on a slopped hill. We left the main road, crossed over a muddy trench and started climbing the hill. Lorie and I walked over to a rectangular...
Read MoreOne Christian fad you should pickup: Bible Reading
Fads Come and Go… Although I have only existed for a mere 35 years, I have seen my share of Christian fads. Let me name a few: Experiencing God, Velvet Elvis, The Prayer of Jabez, the Shack, and of course The Purpose Driven Life. Sometimes the fad is biblically sound and theologically clear. Other times, the teaching will focus too pointedly on a single attribute of God, that the fullness of his attributes are missed. Sometimes… the fad is heresy. One thing we can always count on is that there are more “fads” on the horizon and that is not going to change...
Read MoreThings that provoke to temptation
Information is not experience There is always a difference between information, and knowledge gained through experience. A mother reading about giving birth does not have the same perspective as the mother, who is holding her newborn daughter. Knowing if you studied enough for an exam is always made clear when it is complete. In life, we continually experience this truth: Information is not experience. Before we came to Papua New Guinea we had read about it, talked about it and met with people who had lived there. We cooked food that was different. We shopped at grocery stores that...
Read MoreLearning a lost art: Sentence Diagramming
Why Sentence Diagram? I read a good book recently, “Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog” by Kitty Burns Florey. The book is a well written, witty history on the birth and progressive refinement of sentence diagramming. I think she sums up how most feel about sentence diagramming in the opening pages, 1″Diagramming sentences is one of those lost skills, like darning socks or playing the sackbut, that no ones seems to miss.” My first exposure to sentence diagramming that I remember was at Grace Bible Church in 2011. I’m sure my third grade elementary school...
Read MorePraying for things around the world
Lorie and I have found ourselves praying a lot recently. Our family has always had a pattern of praying, typically falling within the context of meals and bedtime. However, we have found those times of prayer with more depth and concern recently. I am not sure on the particular reason but I do know that Lorie and I have felt more compelled to pray for more things than we had in the past weeks. We recently sent out a newsletter for the month of August and included two prayer requests that have been heavy on our hearts. David Hantla fighting Leukemia and our teammates the Dodds making a...
Read MoreRemembering the meaning of “Crucified”
“The plane dropped the atomic bombs and ended the war.” That is a summary statement of the Enola Gay dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing 140,000 people instantly. The dates were August 6th and 9th 1945 and those events ultimately ended World War II. The bombs changed warfare in the history of mankind and devastated the people and the cities they were dropped on. That summary statement however is lacking the magnitude of what occurred when the bombs exploded.1 In John 19:18a we find a similar summary statement. John is describing Jesus walking to Golgotha...
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