FACING YOUR OWN SIN COURAGEOUSLY All of us have things that we wish were not true of us. Sometimes we call these, “regrets.” And they usually fall into one or two categories. Things we have done unintentionally and intentionally. We have all sinned intentionally and we have all sinned unintentionally. Some sins are omission. Meaning, things you didn’t do that you should have done. Some sins are commission. Meaning, things you did that you shouldn’t have done, but you... Read more
FACING THE UNREPENTANT All of us at some point in our lives will have a friend, a love one, or someone else in our life that refuses to repent. No matter what you say to them or how you try to frame it, they just won’t relent on their unrepentance. It could be a child, a parent, a friend, a co-worker, a spouse, a neighbor, or someone you don’t even know well that God has asked you to go... Read more
EXPERIENCING PEACE AMDIST OVERWHELMING ANXIETY Are you tired emotionally? Is your peace short lived due to the overwhelming nature of your life right now? What if I told you there is a cosmic spiritual war going on right now around you that is impacting you inwardly, would you believe me? We’re not the first to enter this cosmic battle! The Apostle Paul can relate. He lived part of his life in a prison cell. I can’t... Read more
THE MYSTERY OF 23: GOD SPEAKS, AGAIN! And so, It begins, AGAIN. Not in the dead of night this time, but in the middle of a warm summer day while taking a walk with my entire family near the base of Lake Erie on July 16, 2017. I was on sabbatical from pastoring Vanguard for the past 20 years. I was in Cleveland, Ohio at a Christian and Missionary Alliance Camp called Beulah Beach, where... Read more
THE MYSTERY OF 23: GOD SPEAKS It began at 1:23 a.m. Something or possibly someone awakened me out of a deep sleep. I sat straight up in the bed, sensing a presence in my room. My wife lay in the bed next to me asleep. Wide-awake and confused, I began to see in my mind’s eye what I would now call a “vision.” My room was dark with a bit of light from the street. The red numbers – 1:23... Read more
HEARING GOD’S VOICE AND OBEYING IN OUR SORROWS Someone once said, “The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world.” They must have been thinking about the story of Hannah and Samuel in 1 Samuel when they said that. Hannah was a barren woman who longed to have children. She cried to God in her sorrows. God wants to meet us in our sorrows. Maybe you feel “small” today in your life. Maybe the circumstances of your life are huge... Read more
DOES GOD SPEAK TO YOU? Someone once said, “it is normal to say, ‘I talk to God.’ But when you say, ‘God talks to me.’ That’s when everyone thinks you are crazy!” Believe it or not, God wants to speak directly to you. Jesus said in John 10, “My sheep hear my voice.” Some of us have never heard God’s voice or if we have, we didn’t know it was God’s voice. How do we learn to hear God’s voice?... Read more
How Not To Be A Discouragement To Others Sometimes I get discouraged. How about you? When I get discouraged, sometimes, I become a discouragement to others around me. It is one thing to be discouraged. It is an entirely different thing to be a discouragement to others. But I find that my discouragement often times spills over into the lives of others and my discouragement becomes their discouragement. I lose sight of what matters, and I become a detriment to... Read more
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