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Love is doing what is best for the other person. What is best for you, Jesus? “The relationship, Patrick. It’s always been the relationship.” March 12, 2020

Yesterday (every Monday) was my chaplain day at the county jail I serve as a volunteer chaplain. I had received an email from one of the program officers the day before (Sunday):“See request below from [the name of the young woman]. She would like to meet with you if you can add her to your […]

I posted this yesterday, but the graphic came out too small. I redid it. I am using this as an illustration with inmates to explain how they can be born-again believers and go back to using alcohol or drugs or commit crimes again when they get out of jail. The message is that they need […]

I was in Ireland for ten days in May and kept a journal of the trip. This is my entry for May 18th while I was in Tipperary and given a tour by the Reverend Michael O’Meara, a volunteer minister at the Church of St. Mary’s (Church of Ireland, which is what the Anglican churches […]

David Wilkerson, the founder of Adult and Teen Challenge and the author of The Cross and the Switchblade, is one of my favorite writers because he spent so much time in prayer and meditation that his messages are like they came from God Himself. God is Faithful is a compilation of his writings in a […]

“You know who Jesus is and that He died on the cross and was resurrected so that you can have eternal life … if you accept His invitation to follow Him. Is that a true statement?’ I said to J. at the Wright County Jail yesterday afternoon. “Yes, I believe that,” J. replied. “Then why […]

I hadn’t heard from Shawn yet in 2022. He’s serving a 28-year sentence in Stillwater and usually calls at least once a month. He called last week. “We’ve been in constant lockdown since January,” he told me. “First there was Covid lockdown for two months. Just as that was lifted, there was a stabbing followed […]

The way we react during the day will either hinder or help our praying. If we allow a state of reaction not born of a simple relationship to Jesus Christ, we shall have so much wilderness waste to get through before we can come to God. The Holy Spirit is there all the time, but […]

This first of the beatitudes Jesus taught at the Sermon on the Mount had always been one of those verses that sounded good to me but that I really didn’t understand. In March of 2019, I decided to do a bit of research to try to get a grasp of what Jesus probably meant. Spirit […]

In the early afternoon of August 22, 2016, I prayed this wandering prayer on my way driving to Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. “Oh Lord, all the cars on the road, all the people in the city, who am I on my own? Only an insignificant identity, nobody, unknown except by a few, of no significance […]