One remarkable element of the Christmas story is the appearance of thousands of angels to shepherds on the night of Jesus' birth. Luke 2:13-14 tells us that they sang, "Glory to God isn the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men (NKJV)." While preparing a Christmas Eve message, it occurred to me that praise almost ALWAYS precedes peace in the Bible. And, when God gives peace without or before praise, it's often incomplete or substandard compared to what comes AFTER

I dressed-up as Santa and entertained residents, staff, and guests at a healthcare facility recently. It was a blast. The children who came were precious. One little girl gave me a note with her requests. The best part was telling corny Christmas jokes as Santa Claus. “Then Rudolf said, you sleigh me Santa…ho-ho-HO!!” The bad part was that I began to lose my voice after a couple of hours. That laugh wears out the vocal chords….LOL At another event, I wore a Chewbacca costume

I wrote a song of prayer my senior year of high school. It was called, “Dear God.” I played it on the piano and recorded a rough version of it to share with family and friends. Eventually, I decided to sing it in a youth talent contest hosted by our church. A friend of mine was a brilliant pianist and a music major at the University of Buffalo. I gave him the cassette to listen to with the hopes that he could arrange it and then accompany me as I sang it. I’ll never forget th

I went to visit a friend’s family in Namibia after a tragic death. The home was basically a cinder block building with a tin roof. There was sparse to no furniture and a dirt floor, no running water, and an outhouse in lieu of a toilet. I remember thinking that I had no idea what hardship was...but did my friend? Of course, to a person living in what I call the "tin hut city" just outside Windhoek, my friend's family lived in a castle. The tin huts are hotter, more flimsy, an