August 3, 2016 I was watching some small birds on the field as they looked for food. A large cat was running toward them, no doubt looking for a meal. I wondered what the birds would do. As the cat moved closer, the birds took a few steps away but seemed in no hurry. So […]
July 27, 2016 Cell phones are amazing. The small device I hold in my hand has no visible connections. It appears to be self-contained – we could say isolated. But we know otherwise. You can be thousands of miles away when you dial my number and that little unit connects to your signal so we […]
July 20, 2016 Humans communicate in a variety of ways, including body language, eye contact or lack of, and acknowledging or ignoring. These means of sending a message to another person may not include actual words, but they are powerful, in that actions often speak louder than words. I have been pondering the impact of […]
July 13, 2016 Many relationship problems result from a lack of willingness to consider more than one view. It is important to define the absolutes and then allow space for agreeing to disagree on a lot of things. There is only one Creator God and one Way to become a member of His family – […]
July 6, 2016 Traveling many miles on interstate highways gives one lots of time to think. You miss the benefits of driving 20 miles per hour through communities where people live, work, go to school, play and attend church – that is an experience of its own. But the interstate lets you cover a lot […]
June 29, 2016 I was visiting with a young couple who wondered about the history of our church and the development of the campus. The church is 65 years old, and I have been on staff for nearly half of those years. Having researched the early years, I have a degree of confidence when discussing […]
June 22, 2016 The directive in Genesis 1:28 to the first humans deals with expanding the family – “have children and populate the earth” – and this is a very important part of the assignment. But there is more: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth […]
June 15, 2016 A recent study of the Book of Daniel has me pondering a question of his and the answer he received. After a series of visits from angelic beings who gave him more information than he could comprehend, Daniel 12:8 reads: “As for me, I heard but could not understand; so I said, […]
June 8, 2016 When Jesus stood before Pilate and spoke of “truth,” He heard the Governor ask, “What is truth?” If “truth” was a mystery nearly 2,000 years ago, I wonder what the question would sound like today? I have been pondering this in light of our continual challenge to sort out fact from fiction. […]
June 1, 2016 Young people have a perspective on life that will change as they grow older. Most of them do not think about getting old because that seems so far away. They typically do not concern themselves with thoughts of retirement, disability insurance or where they will live decades from now. Their focus is […]
May 25, 2016 Certain dates on the calendar provide reminders of special events in the past. This weekend is one of them. In my growing up years, our annual routine was to visit the cemeteries where family members were buried. We would collect wildflowers from the ranch and place them on the graves. My mother […]
May 18, 2016 I have a lot of respect for Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, along with the 12 other Prophets whose books in the Bible are shorter. Those men had a difficult assignment, and there is little, if any, indication that they were appreciated at the time of their ministry. More frequently, they were […]
June 3, 2020 It was perhaps 18 years ago that a couple of people suggested I should write a weekly blog. I did not know what a “blog” was, but Ponder with Pastor Bill came out of that idea. It has been good for me to have this opportunity, and I hope it has been…
May 20, 2020 It feels strange, almost wrong, for me to ask this question: How could the Creator and Controller of the universe be held in captivity by it? I hope I am not dabbling in something inappropriate, but this has been on my mind. The confinement of lockdown is a familiar situation for all…
May 13, 2020 Creator God gives us a statement of beauty and hope when He puts a silver lining around a dark cloud in the sky. He reminds us that the darkness is temporary and there is something more powerful than the cloud. It feels like our lives, our community and our world have a…
Meditación con el pastor Bill 6 de mayo de 2020 Sentado en mi silla de tratamiento esta semana frente a una ventana que me daba una vista para el Monte St. Helens, cubierto de nieve sobre un fondo azul cielo. Era una escena magnífica, y tuve mucho tiempo para disfrutarla y reflexionar sobre el significado…
May 6, 2020 My treatment chair this week faced a window that provided a frame for Mount St. Helens, covered with snow against a sky-blue background. It was a magnificent scene, and I had plenty of time to enjoy it and ponder the significance of that mountain. Prior to 1980, I called it “Mount Chrome…