Durocher's Blog

"Why don't we go to the elders and have them anoint me with oil and pray over me", asked Maggie when she was sick and near death. "Why don't we"? "Why don't we"? I asked myself. "Why"? "I don't know. I suppose we could". "Well, it says in the bible to go to the elders if you are sick", Maggie said. "I know". After some time, maybe six months? I don't know, but after waaaaay too much time, I finally agreed to go to the elders and have them anoint Maggie with oil and pray for her. Why so long? One reason--unbelief. Which of course, is rooted in pride. I am a Mr. Fix it, so I felt like we could handle it without 'bothering' any one else. Wrong. Also, I had an unbelieving attitude that thought if God chose not to heal Maggie then we'd be embarrassed. That sounds so odd and stupid even to say it in a sentence. Have I not even read the bible? God chooses to heal some and not oth...

Bum dads One of the most natural instincts of a father is to protect and train his children. Would any of us deny this? Yet we find ourselves in a situation in our country where there is an overwhelming abundance of bum dads and inadequate dads. What has happened? How did we get here? Am I a bum dad? Even for us who try to do right, we know we are so ill-trained and inadequate. Is there hope? Yes! We can turn this trend around one family at a time--beginning with you. Will it be easy? No. Will it be worth it? Absolutely! Destined for destruction You probably could not find someone who, at twenty years old, would be more likely to be voted as "future bum dad" than me. I'm not afraid to say it. Divorce sucks--and its consequences are even worse. Divorce happens, but we take the cards we are dealt and move forward. But how? How does a young man find the ability, wisdom and knowledge how to be a good dad? It starts with our Father in heaven who c...

If you've ever "loved and lost", you know what a broken heart feels like. We have no idea what a broken heart is, but we sure know what it feels like. Try explaining a broken heart to a robot. Any robot except Johnny Five, that is! Short Circuit is a great movie that demonstrates how difficult it is to translate heart issues into concrete ideas. Heart issues are uniquely human. You might say they are what make us human. Sometimes we try to impose our heart issues onto beloved pets, but in the end, they still eat crap. Animals are instinctual not emotional thinking creatures. God refers to our heart in many ways in the bible. As a matter of fact, 'mind' and 'heart' are often translated from the same word and are determined by the context and are quite interchangeable. God leaves us with the impression that our heart is our emotional center and our center of desires. In a way, our heart represents who we are. When someone sins against y...

In Luke 10:2 we read this: “ The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest". What do you think of when you read this? Who are the laborers? Do you think Jesus wanted us to get giant combine harvesters and get them to do all the work for us? Do you think of your pastors as the combine harvesters? Do you think Jesus was thinking of mass production? Now I know probably none of you thinks this is the correct interpretation. But. How many of us treat our pastors like they are combine harvesters? "The pastors are suppose to do all the work. That's their job". Are they? Did Jesus do all the work? Or, as the context of this passage(Luke 10) shows, did he send out his disciples to do the work? Laboring sheep? As I discussed elsewhere ( Sheepdog blog ), Jesus used sheep to illustrate our relationship with Him, but when it comes to this illustration, where a...