Set Your Mind Above

Send us Fan Mail I love watching the big games when comes time, but I have never paid for the big sport packages. I usually watch it at a friend's house who does, or I sign up for one of those "free trial" offers to watch the game and then cancel before I am charged. I'm a cheapskate fan, I want all the benefits of watching the big games without any of the costs. Well...sometim...

Send us Fan Mail My wife is off enjoying South Carolina, and they stopped in at a very special coffee shop that employees primarily those with disabilities. Having two children with down syndrome of their own, they are on a wonderful mission to change the way our society and others view people with disabilities, and I applaud them!  Because well...God doesn't make junk. Every single person ha...

Send us Fan Mail My wife is off on a girls trip only, so I am hope playing Mr. Mom to my two wonderful children through next Monday. My wife is the sweetest - she was worried about going and leaving me with the kids all by myself, but mostly she felt like she didn't deserve this trip and this break. But nothing could be further from the truth. She works so hard, and I need to show her my grat...

Send us Fan Mail My daughter has this tiny but functional digital camera she recently received that she loves to take pictures on. Last night I started to scroll through them, all 900 of them. What was most amazing was getting to see what kind of things were important to her, important enough to take pictures. It was like seeing the world through her eyes. Well...that's called empathy, and it...

Send us Fan Mail People will believe the craziest things. We talked this morning at a Bible study about people who run catfish accounts, and how gullible people are fooled into sending money to people who are manipulating them. I remember a viral episode of Dr. Phil back in 2015 about a woman who was swindled out of 1.4 million dollars. Well...there are catfish preachers too. False teachers that t...

Send us Fan Mail Steve from Blue's Clues is back! Yes, you read that right - for the 25th anniversary of the show, Steve came back to share a message with the world, and it's powerful! I embedded the audio into the podcast so you can listen to yourself, but ultimately he had a lot to say about how none of us would be where we are today without each other then. He's talking about inv...

Send us Fan Mail I was listening to music this morning when it started playing a suggested track from a band I had never heard before called LANY. The sound was nice, but the words had a terrible message behind them. Essentially, the song was him telling his fiancé or wife, "I'll never say forever, I'll just love you until I don't." You've got to be kidding me. No won...

Send us Fan Mail I am a heavy sleeper, and really struggle to wake up. Sometimes Kylie literally has to shake me to wake up. So when I was supposed to link up with the guys to go golfing on Labor Day at 5:45, I made sure to set extra alarms. However, I woke up to the sound of someone pounding on my window at 8:30 to check on me. Yikes. Well...so many are walking around today while they are asleep...

Send us Fan Mail I was pumped up this year for my favorite team, the Oregon Ducks, to be traveling near us to play Ohio State. I really wanted to go to the game, so I looked into tickets and thought about going - that is until I saw the price. Goodness! That kind of money is not worth dropping on a game, I have a family to think of first. I would do anything for them, but not football. Well...how...

Send us Fan Mail Earlier this week, a horrible rumor was going around town in Stanford, KY that one of our elders wives had passed away. After just a few minutes of digging and phone calls, I discovered that was most certainly not true. It's crazy how these kinds of rumors get started through gossip. Well...gossip is warned about repeatedly in Scripture. Just because something is true does no...

Send us Fan Mail This morning our daughter looked at Kylie and myself and said, "Maybe one day when I grow up I will die too." It was the first time Ava has asked about death, so I took the opportunity to talk about where death came from and what happens when we die. The fact of the matter is we're all gonna die. Well...some will even die again, something that Scripture refers to as...

Send us Fan Mail It looks like I am finally on the mend, and in no small part due to the effort of my loving wife who cared for me all weekend. As hard as being so sick this weekend was on me, I know it was hard on her because it tripled her responsibilities. But she did it without complaining, because it was a labor of love. Caretakers due the same for those who cannot care for themselves, they p...

Send us Fan Mail Guess who has strep again? Goodness, this cycle of someone in our house not being sick just seems to be unending. Ever have that happen? Where no matter what you do, some past injury or some sickness just keeps coming up out of nowhere and you can't figure out why? Well...that happens to all of us spiritually too with sin. We all have that one thing you can't seem to kic...

Send us Fan Mail My daughter got this new coloring set for her birthday that is unique. The coloring surface (a large play mat) activates when it comes into contact with water, which is what the pens hold. One of hers ran out, so I tried to fill it up. However, the caps screw on the wrong way - it's not righty tighty, lefty loosey. It's all backwards. Well...the problem is that so many t...

Send us Fan Mail There was a musty, terrible smell coming from our pantry. We at first thought it was an onion that had sprouted, but it turns out it was a rotten potato. It was hidden among the good potatoes, and we finally located the source when it started secreting liquid. When we went to remove it, it exploded and destroyed everything around it. Yeah, nasty and gross. Well...church discipline...

Send us Fan Mail In the past 12 hours I have become aware of over 30 different people and circumstances that were in need of prayer. I spent the majority of the day in prayer, and ended up in a long conversation with my friend Dr. Kenny Embry of the "Balancing the Christian Life" podcast about prayer also. He asked me a hard question: "Does prayer change us, or God?" Well...wha...

Send us Fan Mail One of my shepherds sent me a picture today with an incredible message plastered on the back of the tailgate of a dump truck. After some research, I discovered this very successful company started out as a mule train hauling goods overt he mountains of West Virginia, but has grown into a 7 company multimillion dollar corporation. What was the message? This company is owned and ope...

Send us Fan Mail A very happy birthday to beautiful daughter Ava, who turns three today! It's hard to believe how much she has changed even just over the past year. We are so proud of her and she brings us so much joy. While we would love to keep her little forever, she needs to grow up. Growth is a natural part of life, and when it doesn't happen we should be concerned. Well...are we gr...

Send us Fan Mail Mowing wet grass is super difficult to do. Yes, it gets cut, but because it all sticks together it will clog up the mower and make your job super difficult. Dry grass is much simpler, because it doesn't have the moisture it separates and is scattered. Well...through this hard year, why have some churches been divided while others have stayed unified? The answer is simple, but...

Send us Fan Mail Last night our son started running a high fever again over 102, so Kylie took him to the walk in clinic 30 minutes before they closed. Sadly, they refused to see them because they didn't want to take anymore patients. No matter how much she pleaded, they were turned away. Luckily we got him in this morning and received an apology from the doctor who said she absolutely would...

Send us Fan Mail Tonight, a lifelong dream of mine is about to come true - I am going to get to see James Taylor live and in person. I am stunned at the thought of maybe even getting to look him in the eyes and shake his hand - what will I say or do? What can you say to someone who helped shape your entire childhood with his music? Well...how much more anticipation do you think I have for the day...

Send us Fan Mail It's amazing how fast the summer went by, kids had their first day of school yesterday as summer break has come to an end for them. It's funny how as young kids you can't wait for school, but the older you get the more you can't wait to graduate and be done with it all. However, I found myself in a journey that demands lifelong continued education, so I'm...

Send us Fan Mail The aquarium was a big hit with the kids yesterday! We saw a lot of amazing things, but my favorite was the cuttlefish. It has this unique ability to camouflage itself instantly to blend in with it's immediate surroundings. We were able to see this on display right in front of our faces, but it got me thinking about my actions because...Well, aren't we all guilty of tryi...

Send us Fan Mail By the time you listen to this, we will have spent the day at the aquarium in Newport, Kentucky with my folks who are here spoiling their grandkids. While I love marine life, there is one creature I fear above any other, and that is a shark. I'm okay looking at them in a tank because I'm still in control, but if I'm in the water I'm completely vulnerable. That...

Send us Fan Mail My absolute favorite day while we were back on the West Coast was when Kylie surprised me with a date, just the two of us. We went hiking at our favorite spot in Silverton, Oregon at Silver Creek Falls. It was so good to spent that time connecting, talking, and growing together without any distractions. Sadly, many couples stop dating each other and so they grow apart over time. W...