tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24752388320747330892024-02-19T07:53:59.017-06:00A Good Infection"(Christ) came into the world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life he has - by what I call a "good infection." Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else." - C.S. Lewis, "Mere Christianity"Wade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.comBlogger104125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-35940132874897801602021-08-09T15:32:00.001-05:002021-08-09T21:42:58.671-05:00Is the Covid-19 Vaccine the Mark of the Beast?Let me begin by laying my cards on the table when it comes to the Covid-19 vaccines. I was among the first in line to receive mine – I actually participated in the Moderna vaccine study. I did that because I believed it was the best way to do my part to end this pandemic. It was a small part, but it felt like something I could do. My purpose though is not to convince you about the Wade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-26799124028471286712020-08-10T12:21:00.001-05:002020-08-10T12:23:56.882-05:00The Temptations (and Dangers) of the Secret Knowledge ClubNot long after Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension, one of the first "Christian" conspiracy theories began to blossom. You can see the roots of it 1st Corinthians 15, watch it develop in 1st John, and then see how it really blossomed in the early church. It came to be known as Gnosticism, and it was a big problem that hasn't completely gone away even now. A group of people in theWade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-82337719284914251092020-07-04T10:35:00.001-05:002020-07-05T17:21:05.111-05:00The Church Needs "Vulnerable Populations"
Ms. Mary with her hands raised in the bottom right hand corner
Ms. Mary sits on the front row at Northcrest. Though she is not a member of the worship team, she is in many ways our “lead worshipper.” She is always the first to stand, the first to raise her hands in praise, the first to clap along with the songs. But Ms. Mary, like many people in our church, is in a high-risk health group.Wade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-6301307298946184902018-07-14T21:18:00.000-05:002018-07-14T21:18:10.675-05:00Is There Anything Out There?
One of my favorite podcasts is “This American Life,” a National Public Radio show that examines different stories happening in our nation. This week’s episode was on Fermi’s Paradox, a scientific conundrum for those trying to understand whether or not there is alien life. Fermi’s Paradox asks a simple question – if there is alien life, then where is it? Why haven’t we found it? Wade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-37959190865180297232017-09-25T09:24:00.001-05:002017-09-25T10:40:42.577-05:00What I Don't Know, and What I Do Know, About What is Happening Right Now
I will freely admit that I'm lacking in wisdom when it comes
to dealing with the cultural moment that we find ourselves in - that we found
ourselves in over the weekend. I honestly do not know what it will take to put
the divisions that we see in our nation back together. It began Friday when
President Trump called football players who kneeled during the national anthem
SOB's and said they Wade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-36612628092604325632017-05-23T08:55:00.000-05:002017-05-23T18:40:16.201-05:00Christian, Don't Join a Facebook Posse
About two years ago, when I was working at WTOK, we missed a
story that a lot people thought we should have covered. It happens. No one is
perfect. Someone posted something on our Facebook page complaining, and I owned
up to it. I apologized and told them we would do better in the future, and were
taking some specific steps to do better. In the past, that more than likely
would have been the endWade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-10563771454344550872017-05-18T10:30:00.000-05:002017-05-18T11:46:10.030-05:00How Jesus Can Save Us From Our Politics
I hate cable news. I haven’t watched 10 minutes of it in the
last five years. When I say that to certain people, they’re surprised. I think
they assume because I worked in TV news for 20 years, that I’m a cable news
junkie. I do keep up with the news – but cable is not the place to get it. It is
a microcosm of what is wrong with our politics right now. If I turn to one
network, I get Wade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-48011888157195526382017-03-20T10:10:00.001-05:002017-03-20T10:10:54.586-05:00A New Chapter in My Life is Beginning
I never wanted to be anything but a journalist growing up. I
guess that’s not 100% true. At first, I wanted to be a super hero, but that
radioactive spider never bit me. Then I wanted to be a professional
baseball player, but I soon found out major league teams were not in the market
for a pitcher with a 65-mile per hour curveball. So being a journalist was my first real
career dream. I Wade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-30966163345594363412016-11-22T11:16:00.000-06:002016-11-22T11:16:24.974-06:00Christmas Looms and Satan's SchemesAbout this time every year, my wife and I start looking at our budget and trying to figure out, “How much money do we have to spend for Christmas?” And I’ll admit, there are times when I wish we had a little more. There are SOOO many presents to buy – for kids, brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents, husbands, and wives. There are Christmas parties to go to and Yankee Swaps and Dirty Santa’sWade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-18049494197644283552015-12-10T13:52:00.003-06:002015-12-10T13:57:15.305-06:00Have a Messy Christmas
My favorite Christmas movie is “National
Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” starring Chevy Chase. It’s a picture of a messy,
sloppy, Christmas where nothing seems to go right. Chase’s character Clark
Griswold simply wants to have the perfect, old-fashioned family Christmas, but
everything goes wrong. There is family drama. He has problems with his boss. His
massive effort to hang Christmas lights Wade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-86363908727441174092015-10-30T16:42:00.002-05:002015-10-30T16:42:25.226-05:00Why I Am a Christian
I am a
Christian. No one who knows me will be surprised by that confession. What might
surprise some people is the path that brought me to faith. Though I grew up in
the church, the son of a Presbyterian elder, the grandson of a pastor, faith in
Jesus did not come easy for me. My years in college, and the years immediately
following, were full of questions about what was real. It wasn’t Wade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-90787205970683750682015-06-23T19:59:00.000-05:002015-06-23T20:09:13.847-05:00Race and the Gospel and My Mississippi
I am a son of the South – a son of
Mississippi no less – born, raised, educated, and employed here for most of my
life. I love Mississippi so much I moved back after moving away, choosing to
raise my family here, choosing to plant my life here among some of the best
people in the world.
But I am not immune to understanding
our flaws, historically and currently. The issue of race has alwaysWade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-60433227820141466222015-01-26T11:06:00.000-06:002015-01-26T11:06:00.501-06:00Are You Practicing Christianity or Witchcraft?
Christians don’t
think much about witchcraft or magic these days. The idea conjures up images of
ladies who come out at Halloween with crooked noses, warts and black hats. When
we think of magic, it’s more likely to be along the lines of what a Disney
princess can do than anything the Bible talks about. There are times when the
idea of witchcraft as dangerous rears its head – as with Wade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-10147200594679773772015-01-19T22:47:00.003-06:002015-01-20T12:40:14.887-06:00Screwtape and Heaven
(Editor's note - this letter is written in the spirit of C.S. Lewis' "Screwtape Letters," purported to be letters from a senior demon to his younger nephew, about how to tempt a particular subject. I make no claims of the same quality of Lewis.)
My Dearest Wormwood,
I understand your patient has had some kind of accident, and
has fallen into a coma. You must realize how precarious aWade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-55085170545992951172014-12-11T14:12:00.000-06:002014-12-11T14:20:22.690-06:00Ferguson, the Gospel, and What I Must Do
Like many of
you, I have been watching the events of the last few weeks in Ferguson, Missouri
and New York City with a mix of horror and sadness. I’m a news guy; the
particular facts of those particular cases, where police officers killed
suspects, are not mine to opine about. But I’m also a Christian. And as I have watched
the racial divisions that have bubbled to the surface over the last fewWade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-4528792063204286222014-10-03T08:53:00.001-05:002014-10-03T09:11:45.615-05:00Christian Cotton Candy
It is
autumn, a time of year for carnivals and festivals and fairs and football
games. That means that over the next several weeks, copious amounts of cotton
candy will be consumed. Any parent worth his or her salt knows one important
thing about cotton candy – it’s best consumed in small amounts. Eat too much,
the kids get really hyper, and then possibly sick. Cotton candy is great is
smallWade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-156440291426076012014-09-24T10:55:00.000-05:002014-09-24T11:36:32.017-05:00Go Ahead, Be a Rebel
Our society
loves a rebel. The iconic picture of the “Rebel without a Cause,” James Dean,
is a part of American folklore for a reason. There is something about someone
who refuses to let society define who he is, who makes his own way, who rebels
against the standards that others have set for him. Our society has embraced
this “rebel” mentality to its fullest extent. There’s a real sense Wade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-75628092451516893422014-09-22T16:37:00.000-05:002014-09-22T16:37:26.285-05:00Jesus is Not Your Boyfriend
As my wife and I were driving down the road yesterday, a song I've heard dozens of times over the years came on the radio. It’s a catchy
little tune, with a nice hook. It’s frankly very easy to get stuck in your head
– and not even in a bad way.
Oh, I love the way you hold me, by my side you’ll
always be
&Wade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-76941437095187153482014-09-09T10:38:00.002-05:002014-09-09T15:29:25.221-05:00In Defense of the Osteens (Kinda, Sorta, Not Really)
Does God want you to be
happy? Is that his main concern? Does he hope you’ll be good, but mainly hope
you’ll be happy? Is your main purpose in life to seek your own personal comfort and
peace and happiness? Is that really what life is all about, or is there
something more? Maybe life is about seeking none of that, laying yourself aside, forgetting about you and caring about others. Maybe Wade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-42161230721989524512014-05-21T11:11:00.000-05:002014-05-21T16:40:33.078-05:0040 Things it Took Me 40 Years to Learn
Today is my 40th birthday, and it feels like
quite a milestone. I certainly don’t consider myself wise, but I think I have
gathered a little wisdom over my four decades. Much of it has been learned the
hard way. So here, in no particular order (except number 1) are 40 things it
has taken me 40 years to learn.
40. If you want to be noticed at work, be the guy who always
complains. If youWade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-27903194073326634312014-01-22T15:49:00.000-06:002014-01-22T17:47:30.281-06:00Thugs, Punks, and the Image of God
I, like many people on Sunday night, saw the exciting ending of the Seahawks-49'ers game in the AFC Championship. And as exciting as the game itself was, the post-game might have been even more entertaining. For those who haven't heard yet, the game ended with Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman deflecting a would be game-winning touchdown pass into the the hands of a linebacker for an Wade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-40264342874808301662013-12-30T11:58:00.000-06:002013-12-30T15:04:36.400-06:00Church Attendance and Other Life and Death Matters, Part 1
We are quickly approaching the New
Year, and for many people, that means making New Year’s Resolutions. I am neither
a proponent nor an opponent of such resolutions; but if you are one for them,
or are considering making one this year, can I make a suggestion for one? Why
don’t you commit to being a regular, active member of a local church? If you
are a Christian, this is vital. It’s not Wade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-40943984296408589872013-12-23T14:11:00.001-06:002013-12-23T14:24:40.423-06:00Everything is Not a "Thing"
For many years, David
Letterman had a segment on his show called, “Is This Anything?” In that
segment, the curtain on the stage would be raised to show a performer of some
kind doing an act of some kind. Most of the time, there was real question as to
whether this “act” was actually an act, or just some random person doing
something equally random. After a few seconds of watching themWade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-11494308797821314232013-12-21T11:38:00.003-06:002013-12-21T11:38:30.417-06:00Offended by What?
My Facebook feed is full of people who are offended
by something. Maybe it’s something political. Maybe it’s personal. Maybe it’s
religious. But I would guess one of four posts in my feed are about someone who
has gotten offended by something. Right now, there are a lot of people who are
offended by people are offended by their Christian beliefs. And they’re asking
the question: whyWade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475238832074733089.post-66946974426417999732013-12-20T11:25:00.002-06:002013-12-20T13:17:13.805-06:00And another thing . . . .
I don’t know if you noticed, but
the internet blew up yesterday. I am still cleaning black and grey beard trimmings
ofF my keyboard, and wiping camouflage from my screen. The controversy over
statements made by Phil Robertson, the now-suspended star of “Duck Dynasty,”
has fueled internet traffic like few other things I've seen in recent times. I
added a very small part to this with my post, Wade Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797870793178905326noreply@blogger.com0