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Sports fanaticism & idolatry

2 Comments / Relationship with God, Uncategorized / Tom Stuart

It’s been a tough past five days for Minnesota sports fans. The Gopher football team lost to Penn State on Saturday, the Vikings lost to Green Bay on Sunday, the Wild lost to the Capitals on Monday and the Timberwolves lost to Sacramento on Wednesday. Losses are bad enough, but every single one of them was a winnable game. That is frustrating! When I went to bed Wednesday night I was repenting. I had just spent two fruitless hours watching another defeat and wasting valuable time and energy on something I knew ultimately could never satisfy me.

When we read in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, about the worship of idols our eyes gloss over and we relegate such behavior to that of primitive cultures. After all we are far too advanced and sophisticated to fall prey to such foolishness. Right? – Wrong! Idol worship in our modern culture is more rampant than we realize and in all honesty rivals the idol worship of even Hinduism which boast millions of gods.

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Healthy tension, healthy church

1 Comment / Stats & Trends, Uncategorized / Tom Stuart

All healthy churches have one thing in common. They are able to hold in tension a spectrum of seemingly spiritual opposites without the exclusion or condemnation of one over another. Unhealthy churches do not manage these tensions and criticize those who do. Some of the most common tensions are:

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What I told Pharaoh

2 Comments / Holy Spirit Aha's, Uncategorized, Window into my Soul / Tom Stuart

One of the most amazing and unforgettable experiences I have ever had was to have a face to face encounter with Pharaoh king of Egypt. Yes, I am talking about the very same Pharaoh whom Moses confronted with the 10 plagues over 3000 years ago. Several years ago Susan and I spent a week in Egypt visiting our daughter Anne who was teaching at the time in a private school in Cairo. My Egyptian highlight reel features only two events from that trip: our hike to the top of Mount Sinai and the visit to the Cairo Museum.

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The gospel according to Michael Jackson

3 Comments / Uncategorized / Tom Stuart

This past week I finally had an opportunity to watch the DVD of the movie, “This Is It.” It is the documentary of Michael Jackson’s preparation for a London concert series during the last months before he died. It was a poignant portrait of a creative genius working at his craft.
Although I do not endorse his questionable and controversial lifestyle I can honestly say I was deeply impressed with the qualities the man displayed in this behind the scenes look at his professional life.

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The perplexity and probability of restoring broken trust

6 Comments / Relationships, Uncategorized / Tom Stuart

When trust is broken how is it restored? The news this week of yet another high profile marriage in crisis because of infidelity raises this and many related questions. Could such a breach of trust have been avoided in the first place? How do people even begin to rebuild their lives? These revelations fuel the

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