by Chris Plekenpol We had an exciting day, yesterday. Several WBCC members had been praying for our friend Tom specifically, and yesterday was his day of salvation. It all started a couple weeks ago when Brawn Lide (one of our esteemed elders) were having coffee outside of Kenny's on Friday morning after an elder meeting. We were talking about websites, the City, and how...

Tom Dahm and I were at Starbucks about to leave, when a woman noticed I was wearing a Live For More! shirt. She stared at me and I wasn't sure if I had something on my face or what, but then she pointed in my direction and exclaimed, "Who are you? Your shirt. What is your shirt?" I was slightly taken off guard, but approached the woman and told her what Live For More! mea...

by Chris Plekenpol In our culture and probably many others, lying is an art form. I've told many a grandparent or relative that I loved something they gave me for Christmas, while wondering what decade the sweater had been warped from. Even wrote thank you cards for it. I have lied about how well someone sang, spoke, or played. I have lied about how good or bad something ...

by Chris Plekenpol I hate being lost. Especially when I'm late. I'm not sure if I hate asking for directions more than being lost. It's not that I'm overly bashful, it's more that I don't trust someone that I don't know to give me good directions. I think, "That guy will never see me again, what's to say he won't just send me on my way to only God knows where without a se...

Until a Mormon friend of mine told me he believed the Bible says we have three separate gods, I had never really questioned what the Bible says about "the Trinity" one God in three persons. Many of us don't give much thought to something like the doctrine of the Trinity until we encounter someone who challenges us on it. But the truth is, the doctrine of the Trinity is i...

Growing up I had one goal. To be rich. When people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would often answer, "The best". They would ask, "The best at what?" I would respond with whatever I was interested with at the time. I wanted to be the best Major League Baseball Player, NBA star, NFL star, then when it turned out that my 5'10", 150 lb frame wasn't goi...

Have you ever been to Wal-Mart and seen a mother swat a son as a sibling looked on with glee? Justice had been served. But when the sibling started to taunt his brother, the swatting ceased and the mother turned her attention to the one who rejoiced in the punishment of his brother. I think we never outgrow that tendency to want to see our enemies go down. Many times I wa...

I can get frustrated when things don't go my way. Irritated when people don't see things from my perspective. It's like they intentionally want to see me fail. I think this is something that is common to man. Do you ever get frustrated with someone at work who seems to be intentionally running interference on you or shooting down your great ideas at meetings? We all have e...

Getting To Know Alma Castro Alma took in a deep breath of the stiff air. Sweat trickling down her face. She bent down on her hands and knees to scrub the stains away. She paused for a moment and wondered if this was worth it. Alma grew up in Mexico. At 15 years old, a few of her friends invited her to church camp. Little did she know, that week would soon remove the s...

Yesterday I attended a conference where one of the speakers said that the definition of insanity was "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." In fact, I have heard this phrase so much, I think our culture has assumed that that is the definition. But I think within the non-insane Christian life, there are lots of things that we do over a...