As I explained in Jesus Now, the beginning of the Christian faith is fairly easy. And so is the last part of the journey. It’s the middle that’s incredibly difficult. There are usually two points in a believer’s life where they encounter a crisis of faith. This is especially true if God is using the person in powerful ways. One is when they are around 30 years old. The other is when they are in their 40s. I’ve watched many people fall away... Read more

The other day I was reading Luke 18, the beginning parable. Here’s what the Lord said, Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ 4 “For some time he... Read more

There’s no question that the New Testament teaches that there will be various degrees of reward in the future kingdom. But it’s important that we don’t make the mistake (as many have) of elaborating on them beyond Scripture and codifying them into some sort of ironclad system. Scripture doesn’t give us details about this aspect of the kingdom. Although it certainly does teach rewards. For example, For no one can lay any foundation other than what is being laid, which... Read more

In John 5, Jesus made this insightful but sober remark: “How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” One of the major obstacles to faith and the cause of unbelief is the desire to receive glory from mere mortals, instead of receiving honor from God. My prayer: Lord, in all that I am doing, in all that I’ve done, and in all that I will... Read more

Recently, I came across a fascinating remark from George Whitefield regarding John Wesley. Whitefield and Wesley were contemporaries who both had massive followings during their time. But they disagreed on a number of key theological points. Whitefield was much more a Calvinist while Wesley was much more an Arminian. In light of their doctrinal disagreements, someone once asked Whitefield if he thought he’d see Wesley in heaven. Here is Whitefield’s reply: “I fear not, for he will be so near the... Read more

Theology doesn’t have to be a bloodsport. It can be a civil and intellectually honest conversation. However, much of the problem today is that Christians use different conversational styles when they argue theology. So the disagreement ends up being rooted in semantics rather than substance. And that’s why we have WWE-styled theological smackdowns! Check out this blog series – which offers a cure for this ill: Introducing Spiritual Conversational Styles The Charismatic Spiritual Conversational Style The Quoter Spiritual Conversational Style The... Read more

Tozer is one of my mentors. You can hear about the time I “met him” in one of my podcast episodes. Here’s what Tozer wrote about ownership. I do not mean by this that you cannot have things. I mean that you ought to get delivered from the sense of possessing them. This sense of possessing is what hinders us. All babies are born with their fists clenched, and it seems to me it means, “This is mine!” One of... Read more

About how the New Testament uses the term “the world,” Watchman Nee continues to write, Concerning this system [“the world”] there are two things to be emphasized. First, since the day when Adam opened the door for evil to enter God’s creation, the world order has shown itself to be hostile to God. The world “knew not God” (1 Cor. 1:21), “hated” Christ (John 15:18) and “cannot receive” the Spirit of truth (14:17). “Its works are evil” (John 7:7) and... Read more

This is part 2 of my most popular post, Bono on Jesus In this two-minute video, Bono talks about Jesus, His identity, why He was crucified, and why He believes Jesus is the resurrected Son of God. He also answers personal questions about prayer, specifically who He prays to. Take the 2-minutes to watch the video and please share the link (below). Bono’s candor is refreshing!   Read more

The following webinar contains a spoken message recorded in front of a live audience. The message has changed the lives of countless Christians. Just click the play icon on the video to hear it. You can listen to it with your smart device while driving, walking, exercising, doing house work, etc. The video screen presents the title of the message and a link to the full course where you can access all the talks (plus a workbook) in the series.... Read more