PlainSpeech Messages | Find YOUR way to GRACE.
I recently read a message I’d given in 1984 and felt a mixture of embarrassment and surprise. Embarrassed because it seems inadequate now, and surprised by how much my worldview has changed. Twenty-five years from now, I might read these messages and have a similar reaction. I offer no guarantee that my work or words will endure the eroding effects of time. I can only assure you these thoughts have been helpful to me, and perhaps a few others, today. With that qualification, I offer them to you.
~ Philip
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Christianity 101: The End Times
VIEW VIDEO Well, I was in Dallas this past week to speak to a pastor’s conference and according to a sign I saw on the way from the airport to the event, the world is ending any day now. The sign said Jesus is coming back. The sign didn’t say where he had been, but...
Christianity 101: The True Woman
VIEW VIDEO I remember, this was 30 some years ago when I was pastoring up in the city, we were approaching Mother’s Day and a woman approached me and said, “I hope on Mother’s Day, you don’t talk about how wonderful mothers are, because mine wasn’t. My mother was...
Christianity 101: The Challenge of Suffering and Evil
VIEW VIDEO It is good to be back. I was at a Quaker pastor’s retreat this week, then last weekend Joan and I went to the farmhouse to work outside, cleaning away the dross of winter, picking up fallen sticks, raking the flower beds, mowing and weed-whipping, sweeping...
Christianity 101: Who Are We?
VIEW VIDEO I was up in Carmel last week giving a speech to a literary society for their spring banquet. It was a gorgeous spring day, so I drove there on the back roads, past farmers working their fields, with the redbuds and dogwoods in bloom and peonies popping up...
Christianity 101: The Holy Spirit
VIEW VIDEO I was at a weeklong conference up north about fifteen or so years ago. One morning after I spoke, I was chatting with folks, shaking hands, that kind of thing, when I was approached by three women, who asked if I would meet with them privately that...
Power and Character – Easter 2023 (Matthew 28:1-9)
VIEW VIDEO Americans are a curious lot. I was eating lunch at Frank’s Place this week. I go there for my continuing education. There is much to be learned by listening to the conversations around you. When I was there this week, I was eavesdropping on the table next...
Christianity 101: Does Jesus Save Us?
Back when I was 16, and the Catholics traded me to the Quakers for two draft picks yet to be announced, I had to learn a whole new way of doing church. Out went the male-only leadership and obeying them always, in came Quaker women on a mission from God and staying...
Christianity 101: How Jesus Became God and Why
VIEW VIDEO When I was a kid, we had two dogs and a cat claimed by my siblings. I kept telling my mother I wanted a pet of my very own, and she kept resisting, not wanting another to tend another pet. But then I contracted a serious illness that our family doctor,...
Christianity 101: What God Can’t Do
VIEW VIDEO When I was a kid there was this boy in my catechism class named Matt, who, though appearing human, was thought to be demonic. When Father McLaughlin at our Catholic Church gave a sermon in which he described the devil, everyone turned and looked at Matt....
Christianity 101: God
VIEW VIDEO I was talking with a young person this week who wants to be a doctor and I thought what a noble profession medicine is, how when you’re a doctor people respect your advice, because they know you’ve studied many years and passed a test confirming your...