By Alex Anderson, Senior Associate Pastor at Bayside Community Church You know what would really be nice? If you (my friends and readers) would send me more of your stories of pain and failure; then I could use your stories and not have to always use mine. (smile) Many years ago, I went into business with a person who, from …

By Alex Anderson, Senior Associate Pastor at Bayside Community Church John the Baptist asked Jesus a very bizarre question once.  In Matthew 11:3 He asked, “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?” Here is why that seems so bizarre. John also said these words in John 1:29, “Look, the Lamb of God, …

By Alex Anderson, Senior Associate Pastor at Bayside Community Church My Uncle Mutt always smiled. His real first name was Eugene, but everyone called him Mutt. Late at night, sitting around a pot of Maxwell House coffee, my Dad and Uncle Mutt would tell jokes and “side splitting” hunting and fishing stories until around 2:00 am. Glued to every word …

By Alex Anderson I have this incredibly wealthy friend. Well, he’s wealthy by my standards anyhow. If I had to guess, his net worth  is somewhere north of say, a hundred million dollars. He’s also very  giving. One of the kindest people you’ll every meet. And he has, at times, been very generous to me. Which, by the way, gave …

By Alex Anderson Mayflies I had this crazy thought. See if you can follow me on this. I’m 53 years old. If I live to be 86 years old (a very real possibility given my genes) then I have 33 years left. At first this sounds like a lot of time, and it is, unless the perspective is changed to …

By Alex Anderson, Senior Associate Pastor at Bayside Community Church Just the other day my son was  packing up to move in to his apartment near the college he is attending. This is his senior year. As we were talking about his final year and classes, he became visibly frustrated. He said, ”You know dad I have spent a lot …

By Alex Anderson, Senior Associate Pastor at Bayside Community Church One morning I was praying in my study at home and asked God for His help on something that is very important to Him and me. In my prayer, I was asking Him for specific things. Shortly after my prayer, I was preparing to head to my office at Bayside …

By Alex Anderson, Senior Associate Pastor at Bayside Community Church Remember the line, “Bueller…(long pause), Bueller…(long pause), Bueller,” from the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”? The actor, Ben Stein, made that line infamous as the boring, monotone high school teacher, while he was taking the class role. However Benjamin Jeremy Stein’s real life has been anything but boring. In addition …

By Alex Anderson, Senior Associate Pastor at Bayside Community Church God has an unusual little thing He does. The first time I realized what it was it caught me off guard a little. And as a matter of fact it really frustrated me because he expected me to participate in His little shenanigan. As hard as I tried I could …

By Alex Anderson, Senior Associate Pastor at Bayside Community Church Words and thoughts are spiritual. They are not material. The material world can be measured; the spiritual cannot. This is my simple definition of spiritual versus material. Also when I say spiritual, I’m not necessarily referring to God or morality. I’m referring to that part of every human’s life that …