Author: Jon Gauger

With Christmas safely in the rearview mirror, an unsettling thought has….settled upon me. Please don't write me off as a Christmas-hater…a sort of evangelical Ebenezer Scrooge. But as I look back upon our celebration of Christ's birth, I'm concerned. Let me express it in a sentence. As a Christian culture, it seems to me we have made so much out of having a Merry Christmas, we've forgotten that merriment was surely not the only thing on God's mind as that first Christmas story unfolded. The same passage in Isaiah 9 that brings us a picture of Jesus as the "Wonderful…

Quick question for you.   What Christmas Carol is placed as the concluding song on more albums than any other?  Answer: Silent Night. Okay, I don’t have statistical proof.  But I have looked at dozens and dozens of Christmas recordings.  With few exceptions, they end with Silent Night. But it’s the second phrase of that beloved Carol I want to look at today.  Silent Night…HOLY night.  The word, holy, of course means set apart.   That’s what you and I are supposed to be as followers of Christ: set apart.  But ARE we?  George Barna statistics would suggest otherwise.  We divorce like…

Recently, I stumbled on to the writings of the Puritans.  One of my first  books: Richard Baxter's work titled, “The Causes and Danger of Slighting Christ and His Gospel.”  Born in 1615, Baxter  was a a church leader, theologian and prolific writer.    For 25 years, he endured persecution and imprisonment for his stand on the gospel.   I figure a guy who endured all that he did for Christ deserves my attention when he cautions that you and I who claim to know Christ just might be guilty of slighting Him—and His gospel. Here's one example of what Richard Baxter means…

They want you to feel relaxed. They want you to feel like you're in a friend's living room. But you're not.   You are in a surgical waiting room.  You and fifty others, doing everything to avoid thinking about the surgery your loved one is undergoing. On a sofa-like chair, one woman knits what appears to be a soft baby blanket.  An older gentleman is playing Sudoku, while his wife is engaged in a computer laptop version of Solitaire. Off to the side, a woman sips coffee, staring pensively into the cavernous room.  Another lady scribbles crayons in a kids' coloring…

Hi, my name is Jon and I have a new strategy for world evangelization–let me explain. I believe we could reach a sizeable percentage of the world for Christ…if Christians started acting like Christ around service people. What do I mean by “service people.”? It's the guy that fixes your car. It's the lady with the accent that gives you your coffee at Dunkin' Donuts.  Service people.  I'm thinking about the waitress at your favorite restaurant hang-out.  The busboy that fills your water glass repeatedly—because you're so thirsty. Give it a moment's thought, and you'll think of a bunch of…

When it comes to our kids, no name is apparently too special.  A recent article in the “The Week” confirms parents are no longer content naming their kids from a list of—quote–familiar names.  James, Kathy and Robert are out.   Aiden, Emma, and Gunner are in.  Christopher is more likely to go by “Topher.”   And even familiar names must now be spelled uniquely. Those who track names as a profession tell us that an emerging trend is to give your child a LAST name for his or her first name.  Hence the rise of names like Wilson and Taylor.  There is…

I’m thinking of someone I love.  Someone on one of the branches of our family tree.  Because this person sort of intimidates me, I am friendly in person, yet don’t go out of my way to fully engage in conversation or in other social settings.  We are polite, genial, and…not as comfortable with each other as I might wish. I suspect this might be a reliable snapshot—or at least, analogy—of how many of us feel about the Holy Spirit.  We know the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Godhead.  But we’re sort of intimidated by Him.  We’re polite, but…

The election is coming!  The election is coming!  To hear some folks, the outcome of the upcoming election will determine whether the human race…and planet earth itself…will survive. Don't get me wrong.  I'm concerned about the election, too.  I look forward to fulfilling my patriotic responsibility and casting a vote.  I'm researching the candidates, studying the issues.   But my concern about this election is much bigger than which candidate wins the White House, or which party controls congress. My concern is that too many Christians view this election just like non-Christians: we put way too much hope in it. To…

Halloween. Like it or not, the season is here. Christians can disagree over whether it's okay to dress up or go trick or treating.  But I am not interested in that discussion at the moment.  My focus is much more fundamental.  I want to talk about evil itself.  The evil that is increasingly celebrated at Halloween. The “Spirit” chain of Halloween stores has grown from 63 in 1999 to nearly a thousand this year!  In our neighborhoods, many homes now put more effort into decorating for Halloween than they do Christmas. The other day I passed a car with a…

When did America begin to self-destruct spiritually?  Do you ever wonder?  I have.   Ask ten people and you'll get ten answers. Some say it began in the 60s with the Beatles and permissive parenting.  That lead to drugs, free sex and a general contempt for authority.  Others say, “No, it began before that.  It was the 50s—think Elvis and his wild hip gyrations.”  Some point to the roaring 20s, with speakeasies and crime sprees and dime novels with questionable characters. But Harvard historian Dani Shapiro offers a disturbing piece of evidence that dates much earlier yet.  It was the year…