The Pastor's Perspective

  There’s a powerful, raw letter that once captured significant attention, penned by a girl named Anna. She wrote: "I wish I could say that I believe in Jesus Christ, that He loves me and cares, but I no longer believe that. From a mother who is vicious and has wrecked my adoptive family, to the death of my adoptive brother, I no longer believe. I even find myself wondering if God really exists. I look around at all the Christians who say that they help people who don't know how to ask for it but they have not even noticed my pain. IF GOD LOVED OR EVEN CARED FOR ME, HE'D AT LEAST HELP WOULDN'T HE? BUT NO HELP HAS COME! GOD DOESN'T LOVE ME – ANNA"      Those concluding words resonate deeply with countless individuals who have experienced profound pain or trauma. Perhaps you've heard the well-intentioned but often unhelpful religious clichés, like "God will never give you more than you can handle." Yet, for many, the questions linger: "Why is ...

There was a shepherd who had a large flock and a big problem. A wolf had been taking his sheep one sheep at a time. The shepherd done all he could do to rid himself of this problem but nothing worked. Each week he saw more and more sheep taken from his flock and each week he felt more and more helpless.  Until one day the shepherd had enough and struck out on his own to deal with this wolf once and for all. He tracked this wolf for miles and every now and then he would get close enough to get a shot off  but he would never hit its mark.  He stayed the night in the woods, and the wolf circled his camp time and time again but the shepherd was unable to get a clear shot. Morning came and he sought to continue to track down this wolf.  As he was tracking the wolf, a great blizzard had started to come in and the shepherd realized he needed to turn back to make sure his sheep would be safe.   As he headed back the wolf began to emerge from time to time and the sh...