Signs & Wonders Blog

A well-known preacher was once asked who was the most important person he led to the Lord. His response was that all salvations are precious to God. While I certainly agree with that statement, I’ve played a part in a few that were significant to me personally. Probably the most famous person I led in the prayer of salvation was the man credited with discovering Prince . A transplanted Englishman named Chris Moon owned a Minneapolis recording studio during the 1970s. A demo tape of songs he co-wrote with Prince resulted in the first recording contract for the rock star. In 1995, I met Chris during a business opportunity presentation. Two years after that, he invited me over to his house to listen to a demo tape of songs I put together. In his living room, Chris prayed with me to get saved. I’ve also handed gospel tracts to two men well known to Minnesota sports fans. One was Sid Hartman, a local sportswriter who I saw in 2013 at a Perkins restaurant. The other was Bud Grant, the Hal...

While witnessing to Muslims, they object to Jesus being called “the Son of God” because Allah (the Arabic word for God) supposedly had no sons. When I quoted John 3:16 to one Muslim in particular, this man got hung up on the word “begotten.” He thought it only referred to the result of a sexual union.   The words “begot” and “begotten” are used numerous times in the Bible, usually in genealogy listings. Those words have other uses in Scripture besides records of human offspring . Look at The Message Bible’s rendering of John 1:9-13… “The Life-Light was the real thing: every person entering Life he brings into Light. He was in the world, the world was there through him, and yet the world didn't even notice. He came to his own people, but they didn't want him. But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves. These are the God-begotten, not...

With the holiday season approaching, many businesses and individuals have already put up decorations. Among them are Christmas trees. A popular carol “O Christmas Tree” originated from Germany as “O Tannenbaum”, which translates as “O Fir Tree.” The original lyrics had nothing to do with Christmas. Nevertheless, I remember singing the German version a time or two while in grade school. Like other holiday traditions, some Christians oppose the usage of Christmas trees. One of my Facebook friends made a judgmental comment that people putting up Christmas trees “are worshiping the devil and have a mental disease.” Before giving my life to Christ, I didn’t have a Christmas tree in my apartment because of the time and expense involved. Instead, I drove up to Mom and Dad’s house for the holidays and enjoyed looking at their decorations. Nowadays, I still don’t own a Christmas tree mainly due to my missionary lifestyle. Once I heard e vangelist Jesse Duplantis talk about the time h...

Originally I didn’t plan on watching last Sunday’s Super Bowl. I wasn’t fond of either team playing and had no interest in seeing Lady Gaga’s halftime show. But after practicing a sermon, I decided to walk over to a nearby church that previously hosted a Super Bowl party. The church itself was closed but some men living in the dormitories were preparing to watch the big game and I got to join them. The channel was changed during halftime to briefly watch the Harlem Globetrotters on ESPN2. We ended up seeing a historic game. The New England Patriots came back from a 25-point deficit to beat the Atlanta Falcons in the first Super Bowl that went into overtime. The Patriots overcame two costly turnovers to win their fifth Vince Lombardi trophy. The game illustrated that failure isn’t final…or in the famous words of Yogi Berra, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” The Bible has accounts of people who made major mistakes but God still used them to advance His kingdom. Moses killed an E...

Three years ago on the day after Christmas, I went to a grocery store with a friend of mine. The store was still running holiday advertisements on their loudspeaker. Not once did I hear the announcer mention the word “Christmas.” When I was a kid, I often heard people say "Merry Christmas" to each other. Since then the world has gradually removed "Christ" from Christmas. In our politically correct society, Christmas trees are now often called “holiday trees.” School districts refer to Christmas vacation as “Winter Break.” They also prohibit religious songs from their music programs such as “Silent Night” in favor of ditties like “Frosty the Snowman.” 2,000 years ago, the apostles were commanded by authorities “...not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.” (Acts 4:18) Today there are businesses requiring their employees to say "Happy Holidays" to customers instead of "Merry Christmas." Some city governments forbid N...