Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “FAITH”
When things are comfortable, safe and manageable, I feel confidently secure. When circumstances are well-oiled and unobstructed, I easily sense momentum, empowerment and certainty. During times of human approval, when there are a dozen or more people who have my back, when my detractors are muted by the shouts of my supporters, I walk a little more deliberately and swiftly …
“Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do…” – 1 Samuel 16:3 Allow me to share a brief word with you about how God is working in your life today. He is doing with you what He was doing in the verse above with Samuel 3,000 years ago. He is doing with you the same …
Allow me to provoke you to consider something about the Kingdom today. Most followers of Jesus are clear concerning our mission as the people of God. We are called to advance the Kingdom of God by proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ, and compelling people to acknowledge His lordship over their lives by faith. In essence, as followers of …
The story of Gideon in the book of Judges is a really interesting account. He trickles onto the scene in less-than-impressive fashion, as our first notice of Gideon occurs when he is hiding from the enemy and trying to get his daily chores done without being killed. An angel sent from God comes to Gideon and declares the human-twig to …
“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth …
The Bible does an amazing job at balancing the human experience with a divine dosage of reality. Perhaps one of the easiest ways to bring harm to the cause of Christ is for us to upset this balance by a one-eyed reading of Scripture. Let me explain: God’s word is constantly revealing both the negative and the positive about our …
I know what it is to live in dryness. Days spent in a baked-earth reality have been my personal Christian experience more often than I care to admit. Beyond the fact that it is embarrassing, I have a strong sense that it is simply wrong. It is wrong for an individual who has been totally forgiven and welcomed by God …
I have a friend who just received the immeasurably good news that she is cancer-free. It has been a long journey for her: the terrifying initial diagnosis, prescribed treatments, surgeries, difficult medical reports, physical suffering, powerlessness and much more than the rest of us can possibly understand. She was transparent enough to chronicle some of her journey to her support …
King David is my favorite person in the Old Testament. A very rare mixture characterizes David’s heart as a man who was both a poet and warrior. He wrote beautiful songs for God but also cut off the head of a giant with the same hands that spread the parchment and dipped the quill. As I strive to grow more …
A slight irritation began to find me when a friend refused to let me bless him recently. This is a good guy, a hard-working servant of the Lord. I became aware of a need that he had and did some investigative work to see if I could facilitate that need being met. Respectful of boundaries, I started gently indicating to …
“You are not thinking long enough nor hard enough about this, Jeff.” So came the words from a person whom I trust and love. His commitment to Christ is unquestionable in my opinion. He knows His bible. He is degreed from a well-known Christian seminary and has both age and years of experience on me. For those reasons I felt …
Sometimes it lodges in pretty deep before we are even aware of it. Somewhat like a blemish that appears on your face overnight while you slept – you wake up and discover something is gnawing at you. Often the result is irritability, or perhaps a blueness of heart that attaches itself to you like lint from the dryer. You can’t …
Sitting on a bench in a dugout at a softball field twenty years ago, I was caught off guard by a man who look disgusted when he found out that I attended a Baptist church. I had been saved less than a month and understood very little about the differences in beliefs among those who professed Christ as King. This …
So I call myself a person of faith. But do I live a life of faith? Do I commit to things that stretch me out of myself and into a complete reliance upon a God who rarely supplies details about all that He ordains for me? Some who would easily assume (and declare to others) that they are people of …
It’s early in a new week and, before the clock and calendar really start to ascend to their dual-dictator thrones, I wanted to share some thoughts while they are fresh. Many of you have walked with Jesus longer than I and I hope you might be able to agree with what I am about to write. We not only learn …
The voice you listen most often too determines your direction. The direction you walk in most frequently determines your destination. The destination at which you arrive becomes your life. So let’s walk this backward for a minute and finish where I just began: what voice do you listen to the most? Most of us recognize that we have an inner …
Here’s how it works: Saturdays find me as intense as a laser in preparation, Sundays I explode like a bomb in ministry and Mondays I feel like snail on muscle relaxers, barely able to achieve the basics. I try not to schedule anything that might have some semblance of significance on my Mondays because there is no other time during …
For years, Amy and I have been customers at a dry cleaner which is owned and operated by a very kind family from India. I remember that this family hand-delivered flowers to our home after Amy got out of the hospital following the auto collision which changed our lives forever. The sweet family wanted to show their kindness and I …
You are reading a blog posted on a website from a ministry called Transforming Truth. I spent a large chunk of my former years searching for truth that I could stake my life upon. Having experienced some disillusioning events as a child and willfully committing myself to a pathway of cynicism, bitterness and anti-authoritarian living during my teenage years, as …
Why do we ask the sovereign, all-wise God to do things for us? Well, for one, Christians are commanded to pray. We clearly understand Christians cannot glorify God without prayer, for prayer is the means by which we communicate with God. Followers of Jesus reveal their dependence upon God through the activity of prayer. We worship God as we pray. …
There is a slightly humorous saying that I have heard a few times in the last few years of ministry: “God loves you and people have a great plan for your life.” This, of course, is a spinoff of the true adage that God loves you and that He has a great plan for your life. In your life today …
The handle turns, the bucket lowers, the mechanics are all in place but…the bucket keeps coming back up with nothing in it. This is my season lately when it comes to writing and I kept waiting for things to change but they have not. Rather than leaving an empty blog with some random, outdated post listed at the top, it …
Stifled prayers are the aim of the devil. He does not mind so much that you think upon Christ or remain aware of your deep need of a touch from Him… but the enemy will fight you to no end in order to prevent you from calling out to Jesus. He has several mute buttons that he pushes in your …
The longer one walks with God the easier it is to recognize recurring themes that He addresses in our faith-journey. Some things come easily to you. Effortlessly you stride to, breeze through and hop over certain challenges and never slow your pace. Others around you stumble over these very same things and you secretly wonder why they are not stronger, …
Not every day is a good day for you circumstantially. Nor is every day a bad day for you. Most of you reading this have lived long enough to discern that there are seasons in this life – an ebb and flow that we seem to experience. Recently I have connected with people who are experiencing the following: Deep grief …
