How long do we wait until we cry out to God? In Isaiah 37, Sennacherib the King of Assyria has come against Judah to lay waste to her. Assyria is a few hundred miles from Judah, and the intervening nations have fallen like dominoes to the power of the Assyrian Empire. From a human perspective, all is lost. It’s a done deal. And yet Judah claimed to follow the God of the heavens and the earth. The King at that... Read more
Hey everyone, I’ve got a new idea I want to test launch tomorrow morning. Thanks for letting me take a short Fall Break. I’m back and ready to get started again! One of the things I do each morning is read the Bible on a personalized reading plan whereby I read through the Old Testament once a year and the New Testament three times a year. I always have devotional thoughts but have never regularly shared them before. Introducing: Morning... Read more
I’m heading out of town for the next several days. I’ll pick up my blog when I get back. Thank you so much for your faithful reading! Read more
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: Matthew 10:5 In Matthew 10, Jesus sends his disciples into a hostile environment where he knew that their message might be rejected. The way he instructed them to be salt and light in a harsh environment is the very same way we need to be salt and light in an increasingly hostile American culture. 1. Travel light. Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in... Read more
Education can never fully solve the problems of the heart. Over the past few weeks we’ve heard some unbelievably heartbreaking stories about well-educated men taking their own lives. First there was the Baptist pastor and seminary professor who took his own life recently because he had been outed in the Ashley Madison hack. John Gibson was a New Orleans pastor and seminary professor. He had the highest educational level possible with his doctorate. But that wasn’t enough to keep him out... Read more
Mondays are ‘meh’. You’re still coming down off the mountain of a high from all that weekend football. The weather was great so maybe you were outside yesterday salivating over the prospects of Fall. And then there’s today. You’re bleary-eyed, still basking in the afterglow of the weekend. You’re going to encounter people you’d rather avoid, obstacles you’d rather not deal with and circumstances you could definitely do without. Mondays are ‘meh.’ And if you’re not careful, you’ll waste the... Read more
We know on the most basic level as Christians that Jesus came to set us free. When Jesus launched his public ministry in Luke 4, that’s literally what he declared: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:18-19... Read more
Last week our church had a mission team working in the Haitian slums of Barahona, Dominican Republic. Two of the team members that went have a background in special education, so one of the prayers for this trip was that God would bring people into their path with special needs that they could show the love of Jesus to. There are a higher percentage of children with special needs in third world countries because of the lack of healthcare and preventative... Read more
In the most famous story Jesus ever told (the Prodigal Son), the climax comes when the wayward son returns home and his father runs out and embraces him, mess and all (Luke 15:20). As followers of Jesus, how can we exhibit the heart of the father and embrace the mess around us? Here are five ways: 1). Embrace your own mess. The first and biggest issue for many Christians is that we never can embrace our own mess. We think we have worked ourselves to the place... Read more
Some of the most beautiful church buildings in Europe like the Cathedral at Notre Dame in Paris actually are museums. People come and admire the architecture, but the Spirit of those churches departed a long time ago. Here are six signs that a functioning church might actually be more like a museum: 1). Appreciation over application. Museums want you to appreciate what they have to offer. You don’t have to change at all. Churches can sometimes be more about appreciating the beautiful... Read more
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