FIVE Minutes with Phil

It happened again. Unbelievable. Uvalde, Texas. Furman, North Carolina. Buffalo, New York And that's just in the last two weeks. Before that we had Parkland, Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; Sandy Hook, Connecticut; and of course Columbine, Colorado. What do these all have in common? Guns. The expectation of mental illness. Madness, even. Lots of innocent victims - so many innocent victims.

Freedom is the ability to choose from all available alternatives. That might be more than just the ones that are preselected by someone, somewhere, who has the authority to make such decisions. If I was to go to an all-you-can-eat buffet, I would expect that I could put anything and everything on my plate that I choose. If it's on the buffet, I could take it and eat it. There might be some restric...

In 1 Timothy 2, Paul writes, "Pray for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness." I think we pray naturally for only a few, mostly family and friends. When something gets our attention, we expand the circle somewhat - to those in our churches or communities during challenging times, such as sickness, Covid-19, emergen...

May 21st would have been my Dad's 109th birthday. Unfortunately, Ronald Frank Routly passed away suddenly in 1974, at the age of 61. I think of him all the time, and remember so many things about what we did together, and what he loved. Above all, he loved God's Word, his family, his church, music, and sports - especially golf, hockey, and baseball. And I think he loved baseball the most. How I wi...

This past weekend, Elsie and I travelled to Portland, to spend a few days with our middle son, Chris, and his family. Because of Covid, we had not crossed the border to see them in almost three years. There continue to be signs of Covid all around us - Vaccine Passports at the border, some wearing masks, Multnomah County declaring that with a recent upswing in cases, masks are again being recommen...

In 1:18, Paul says "Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command." In 2:1, he begins by saying, "I urge..." Why the difference? There's a big difference between commanding and urging. If a police officer commanded you to pull over, it's very different from urging you to pull over. Urging is encouraging - is that the same root? It probably is. Commanding is telling.

There are quite a few people that Paul mentions in his letters who we know very little about. Some of them are good examples of faithfulness. These two are not. Hymenaeus and Alexander are two Christ-followers who had apparently lost the battle, dropped the faith, seared their consciences, and shipwrecked their lives. In my previous "Timothy My Son" post, I looked at Hymenaeus. Now, let's look at...

Everyone is a leader. Whether those you lead are a sports team, a crew at work, a group at church, your family, or yourself, you are a leader. And to put it really simply, the better you lead, the better the results! But that's a lot of pressure! I love these quotes: "Leadership is influence - nothing more, and nothing less." "Speed of the leader = speed of the team." "Not everyone will become a g...

What an interesting ride this has been! My intent last November was to publish an episode of FIVE Minutes with Phil Routly every second day. So far, so good! This is my 100th post! Along the way, I've learned a lot. Some friends have helped in many ways, as I've been learning how to work with WordPress and Anchor (which is Spotify). It's been an adventure, with lots of hiccups along the way, as I...

Where would we be without our mothers? I love mine! Only my wife has had more influence on my life, but Mother's Day is when I like to express my love and celebrate all the women in my life.

There are quite a few people that Paul mentions in his letters who we know very little about. Some of there are good examples of faithfulness. These two are not. Hymenaeus and Alexander are two Christ-followers who had apparently lost the battle, dropped the faith, seared their consciences, and shipwrecked their lives.

Put simply, the Pareto Principle says that if you list your priorities in the correct order, and complete the top 20%, you will have completed 80% of what you need to do. If they are in the incorrect order, even if you get 80% of the tasks completed, you may only accomplish 20% of your goals.

Fight the fight of faith. Keep you conscience clear. That way, you won't shipwreck your life. Paul knows something about being shipwrecked, because it literally happened to him. Acts 20 begins with Paul going to Macedonia and then travelling to Greece. This would have been in 56 A.D., when Paul wrote his 2nd letter to the Corinthians and his letter to the church in Rome. In it, he says "I pray tha...

September 2nd, 1972, was the beginning of 8 hockey games that any Canadian alive at the time will never forget. The first four games were in Canada, and the final four in Moscow. Our expectation was that Canada would win at least 7 of the games - after all, this is our sport! But were we ever taken to the woodshed! By the end of the fourth game in Vancouver, we had lost 2 games and tied one, and a...

Paul writes, Timothy, hold on to a good conscience. I will never forget the before and after of my asking Jesus to come into my heart when I was 7 years of age. I went from being the world's worst sinner (in my own eyes) to being a newly-born infant in Christ. I remember feeling like I had just had the world's best bath! My sins were washed away! My conscience was clear! The conscience. The dictio...

There was a song recently written by John Ondransik about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky which asks the question, "Can one man save the world?" Right now, we don't know the answer, but we're praying for the protection of the Ukrainian people, that those who would destroy them would fail, and that peace would prevail. The lyrics include the line, "In a thousand years, will anyone know your...

Paul could have given Timothy the entire description of the full armour of God he wrote in Ephesians, and I'm certain he wasn't saying, "Timothy, when I wrote that circular letter to the churches, I gave a list of six things - the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. Really, the only ones you...

The Johari Window is a tool to help better understand relationships. Believe it or not, it was actually created by Joseph Luft (Jo-) and Harrington Ingham (-hari), two psychologists who were born in 1916. The original idea was to think of a four-pane window in which the horizontal axis has "Known to self" on the left side, and "Not known to self" on the right. The vertical axis has "Known to other...

Paul writes, "Timothy, by recalling these things that I have previously commanded you, you will fight the battle well, hold on to a good conscience, and reject what has led others astray." Fighting the battle well does not fit in to our modern western vocabulary.

A few weeks back I wrote a post on why I love music. The other day I saw a car commercial featuring the squeaks and strains of a high school band, selling the quiet interior of an Infinity WX60. It reminded me of a movie.

Saturday was a day of mourning, reflection, and fear. A day of silence. Sunday started that way, but became a day of celebration! The Sabbath is over, so the travel restrictions are lifted. Two Mary's saw where Jesus had been buried, and along with Salome wanted to be the ones who finished the burial ceremony - to complete what had been started on Friday afternoon. They had seen the stone rolled i...

The Sabbath - Saturday - was a day of mourning, reflection, and fear. A day of Silence. We don't know how many of the disciples were at the cross when Jesus breathed his last. The only one we can be sure about is John, the "disciple whom he loved," since Jesus said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son," and to John, "Here is your mother." They must have mourned together.

After celebrating the Passover meal, Jesus and his disciples left the upper room, and walked across the Kidron Valley to the Garden of Gethsemane where he spent some final hours with them, and in prayer with his father. He was there because he had an appointment with Judas, a large crowd armed with torches, swords and clubs, officers of the temple guard, all sent by the chief priests and elders of...

I have a feeling that Jesus never stopped teaching. Before arriving in the garden, Jesus seems to cover a lot of material. This is his final conversation with his closest followers now that Judas has gone, and they are slowly making their way toward Jesus' destiny. I don't think anyone is in a hurry.

On the night when Passover began, Jesus knew exactly what was what about to happen. Following Jewish tradition, he would gather with those closest to him to remember God's deliverance of his chosen family from slavery in Egypt, as they began their 40-year pilgrimage through the wilderness to the promised land. Jesus gave direction to Peter and John about finding the right place, an upper room, fur...