Category: Pastor’s Pen

BY JACK WARD In May 1846, 187 men, women, and children left Missouri in a wagon train headed for California. There was nothing exceptional about the group or this journey, and we would never have known about them had they not decided to try a shortcut. The “Hastings Cutoff,” as it was known, was indeed

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BY JACK WARD Ludwig Nommensen traveled to begin mission work with a tribe in Southeast Asia. The village chief welcomed Ludwig and said, “You have two years to learn our customs and convince us you have a message worth hearing.” After two years, the tribal leader asked the missionary how Christianity differed from the tribe’s

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BY JACK WARD From a sermon by Scotty Plummer: The day I turned 18, I left home. I had saved some money, and despite my parents’ strong objections, I packed a few things in my Volkswagen and headed for California. Just outside of Needles, California, a man at a rest stop pulled a gun, took

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BY JACK WARD Rabbi Feldman had been having trouble with his congregation. It seemed they could agree upon nothing. Controversy filled the air until the Sabbath itself became an area of conflict and unhappiness filled the synagogue. The president of the congregation organized a meeting of 10 elders and the rabbi. They met in the

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BY PASTOR JACK WARD Remember way back in 2014, when they had the Ice Bucket Challenge, sometimes called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge? It involved dumping a bucket of ice water over one’s head to raise awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and encourage donations to research. It went viral throughout social media in mid-2014.

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BY PASTOR JACK WARD “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” John 1:5 A person without Jesus is not only spiritually dead, he is also spiritually darkened. Jesus said in John 8:12: “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. He who

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