Finding The Changing Room
“…the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…” Isaiah 61:3 What a drudgery life can be when our wardrobe is nothing other than cloaks woven with the threads of a heavy spirit. Sunshine and blue skies seem hollow. The loud laughter of fretless children is irritating to our preoccupied minds. Under the spirit of heaviness,…
No Weapon
There is a frenzied activity in the devil’s armory today. Many weapons are being forged in the fires and on the anvil. Strategies have been finalized against this Lord’s Day and against all those worshipers who recognize Sunday as something special. Assignments have been communicated and specifically tailored in a way that intends to bring…
The Hand That Made You Will Help You
Christians sometimes fall into the trap that God got things started on our behalf and then turned over the reins for us to carry it forth on our own from that point forward. Occasionally we live as if the outcome of our earthly endeavors rested squarely upon our own shoulders, and believe that we had…
The Myth Of The Foggy Mist
Most of us are able to look back to a season in our journey wherein we thought we had most everything figured out. Our answers were bold, our confidence high, our expectations certain and our dogma pronounced. We did not know it then but, looking back now, we discern that we lived with some inner…
This One Thing
Sundays tend to draw my mind to that one event that distinguishes Jesus Christ from every other prophet, Christianity from every other religion and each individual Christian from every other human being. What is it? RESURRECTION. Long ago, the messengers from Heaven had been dispatched for the purpose of announcing to the followers of Christ…
Racial Conflict: Willing To Say The Tough Stuff
It is interesting that, once the intense conflicts and cultural-heat subside, race-relations in America have a tendency to fall back into the entrenched patterns of existence that we have all grown accustomed to. In the midst of the questions, the accusations, the violence, and the silence of the last couple of weeks, allow me to…
Hard Questions In Tragic Times
For those who are interested, here is my 60 minute sermon, preached on the Sunday after the week of outcry between the races. I may not have the answer which solves the national dilemma of racial strife, but I do believe that people can be helped mightily on an individual level if they will consider…
Slaying Perfectionism
Are you one who desires and strives for excellence? If so, you likely expect it in others also. You give your very best nearly all of the time, and your default mindset is that we should all rise up to accomplish everything in life wholeheartedly, with maximum skill and efficiency. In weaker moments you find…
Swimming With John Piper
These are certainly days where I am hearing from many of God’s people that He is stretching their faith. It is not that these people are all saying that they are going through faith-stretching difficulty or pain – some of them are, but most of the people I dialogue with are sensing God moving them…
Banished Sorrow: An End To All Tragedy
It doesn’t matter how old you are. Your race or nationality are insignificant. Male or female is not the issue, nor is whether you are a follower of Jesus Christ or an agnostic. We all have this one thing in common, and it is the lot of everyone ever born under the sun: Each of…