• Fred's Blog

    The Dumb Tax

    A friend made a large donation to help a new organization get started. The founder was an acquaintance and not only persuasive but passionate about the new organization being able to meet a social need not being addressed in the community. The venture failed within two years and ended badly for everyone. I told him he had paid his “dumb tax” on giving. We all pay it either early on – like him – or later. It always comes when we venture into areas about which we know very little and, typically, with people we do not know well. The tax tends to decrease with experience but I’ve paid it…

  • Fred's Blog

    Scrooge Repents

    While I would not say I have been Scrooge, I have come close. In fact, the whole period between Thanksgiving and the end of the year has always seemed like an unnecessary drag on productivity. More Prevent than Advent as people don’t return phone calls or start new projects. Christmas puts everything on hold. People go on vacation or leave early to shop and spend time with visiting family. I know part of it can be traced back to my own family growing up…but I have to admit while I have changed any number of things I learned growing up, I have kept my Scrooge-like attitude toward Christmas. Well, that…

  • Bible Studies

    John 2 – Clearing The Temple Court

    What a difference after a few days at home between the quiet miracle of turning water into wine at the small town wedding and the family coming once again to Jerusalem to observe Passover. We know this was a regular event for his family as Luke tells us they came every year. But this is an entirely different scene from Jesus as a young boy in the Temple. Instead of sitting in his Father’s house among the teachers listening to them and asking questions he is clearing the place out, overturning tables and driving out animals with a whip. I’m sure no one expected this from him. I had a…

  • Fred's Blog

    Twist of Fate

    If you read biographies, you notice a recurring pattern in the lives of many great leaders: early success followed by years of obscurity and hardship – even rejection and exile Child stars and prodigies often experience the same. Writers and artists may show promise and then languish for decades before creating anything again. One-hit wonders are common in music, as are novelists who cannot produce a second best-seller. Sometimes circumstances change beyond their control. Silent movie star Rudolph Valentino’s voice was not suitable for movies with sound. Yasha Heifitz was brilliant as an untaught prodigy but being taught how to read music ruined him for years. Marlon Brando had been in a 10-year…

  • Bible Studies

    The Wedding at Cana: John 2

    The book of John is organized around seven signs. The Wedding at Cana is the first. Nowhere in his description of these signs does John use the word for miracle. The other Gospels are filled with miracles one after another but not John. Every supernatural event has a purpose or a teaching whereas miracles in the other Gospels may not. Every one of the seven signs in John – except this first one – are followed by teaching about the larger meaning of the sign. That’s not the case in the other Gospels. Jesus almost scatters miracles like seed in the course of his ministry but here each event is…

  • Fred's Blog

    Organizing Genius

    A.S. Neill was the iconoclast founder of the Summerhill School in England. His educational philosophy of allowing children to pursue their own interests free from the interference of artificial standards, adult experts and the use of “teaching through fear” gave him both accolades and scorn. Neill himself, while a poor student, became one of the most influential (and controversial) educators of his time. He believed that the best teachers could do was leave children alone to develop naturally. All children, he contended, have an innate desire to become adults and that is not possible with a teacher or adult hovering over them attempting to teach them lessons or tell them…

  • Bible Studies

    John 1:1-18

    The Scottish preacher Andrew MacLaren said this is the most profound page in the entire New Testament – and he is right. It is also the most controversial and the source of most Christian heresies in the early church. What you think about this one page pretty much defines what you believe about Jesus, God, and the Gospel. That is why it is so important not to read it as an isolated page but as part of the whole of Scripture. It is the same Jesus as in Matthew, Mark and Luke but intended for a different audience. 100 years after the death of Christ the Gospel had migrated from…