Recently I was viewing video recordings from a pastor’s conference that took place in Hawaii. The conference happened just a few days earlier and the church that hosted the conference posted all the videos on their website. After watching a few of the videos of the speakers I turned to a video titled “Q&A Panel.” The video of the Q&A Panel seemed to have been recorded in a gym with about seven pastors elevated on … Continue reading →
I’m contemplating death today, because I just learned of the passing of Edith Waugh, a former church member from my Rock Hill, South Carolina days and wife of Les Waugh, whom I wrote about in a previous blog post. Edith was also the sitter for my children and allowed me the opportunity to be out and involved with church ministry, most times that was with Les as we both stuffed ourselves in my Suzuki Samurai. … Continue reading →
With the October 21, 2020 passing of my mother, I am beginning to feel what I’ve heard expressed so many times by adult children following the death of their last living parent. I am feeling the sentiment expressed by surviving children who say, “I feel like an orphan.” For me, it’s been over six-weeks of “I feel like an orphan” but it is a very familiar feeling because as an adoptee I have known that … Continue reading →
My mother passed away on October 21, 2020 after a long battle with Alzheimer/Dementia. I wrote about my mother and the smile I miss at my previous blog post titled Irene H. Durkac. Her Catholic funeral mass was conducted on Tuesday, October 27, 2020 in Rossford, Ohio and the funeral home’s obituary was published a few days prior to that service. I’m writing this post because the mother I knew and wanted to be known … Continue reading →
Love can mean different things to different people, but 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 gives us a clear definition of what love is. All we need to know for how to love our spouse is in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, and I want to share the sixteen points mentioned in this passage of Scripture of what love means. At most of my weddings I usually conclude by reciting these words from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, and I usually give … Continue reading →
My younger sister and I sat in the living room of our childhood home where my mother laid in her hospice bed. As we talked quietly, trying not to disturb our mother’s rest, I could see my mom open her eyes and fix her gaze toward me with a slight smile. I smiled back and continued the conversation with my sister, not really sure if my mother knew it was me or if her Alzheimer/Dementia … Continue reading →
Many years ago I hosted a syndicated radio broadcast called Ask the Bible which was a listener call-in question and answer radio show in the South Carolina and North Carolina market. It’s hard for me to think of those days or use the phrase “Ask the Bible” without thinking about Les Waugh. Les was a parishioner and elder at a church I once served as pastor in Rock Hill, South Carolina back in 1990 – 1993. While … Continue reading →
I was reminded this morning by a friend still living in my home town of Rossford, Ohio that it was 40 years ago today that we graduated from High School in the class of 1980. After the shock wore off that it was 40 years already, it occurred to me that Payton is graduating from High School on this very date as well. 40 years ago I would never have thought that I would have … Continue reading →
Here in America, we have close to 50,000 people a year who die by suicide. The majority of whom were struggling with a mental illness, either a diagnosed condition or acknowledged depression. Think of this, a person has to be in a very low state of mind to actually take their own life. So whether a person is on mental health medication or not, we would be hard pressed to argue that one was in … Continue reading →
I don’t want to call this a rant, though in some ways that is how it is swelling up within me. In recent months and years I have found it disheartening to see so many young pastors advertising their know-how as a commodity to sell to other pastors in order to be like them in their wisdom, experience, and success. I don’t think I’ve arrived at the pinnacle of potential or obtained all the knowledge … Continue reading →
My Dad, Louis S. Durkac, died this morning, September 4, 2019. He was 91 years old and the adopted father of 5 adopted children, and he himself was adopted. He died just 2 days shy of his 67th wedding anniversary with my Mom, Irene, whom he leaves behind in a fight against dementia. I am the middle child of the 5 Durkac’s and often accused of being the odd guy out or the black sheep … Continue reading →
I would like to suggest to my Seventh-day Adventist friends to substitute the word “Messiah” for the word “Sabbath,” every time you read it in the Bible or in the writings of Ellen White. I once had a New Testament professor who in teaching through the book of Galatians, suggested that when we read the word “law” we could add the phrase “as a means of salvation” behind it and get a correct understanding of the … Continue reading →
Well, let me say the title of this post should more accurately be “Why Clemson Won – Possibly, Theologically Thinking.” My thought is that Coach Dabo Swinney of the championship Clemson college football team did such a powerful job at giving God glory that it struck me as possibly part of the reason Clemson may have won. During the nationally televised post game interview, Coach Dabo Swinney said, “All the credit – all the glory – … Continue reading →
Here are the top 5 searched and viewed posts in 2018 from our www.crosshopechapel.org website. That means that people searched the internet for a specific topic or question and our website post came up on that search so with our #1 post there were close to 1000 people and the other posts were all around 100 people. I would never have guessed that my “CSB, ESV, and Translations” post would head the list but apparently a … Continue reading →
