Blog
There is more to a verse than just its opening line. Surrounding passages of Scripture give us a broader view of what the verse is addressing. Take the first part of Psalm 46:10, for example: “Be still and know that I am God.” The surrounding context...
In the small coastal town of Brookings, Oregon, not far from where Jan and I live, is a unique and impactful story of forgiveness from both sides of World War II. From a website called The Historian’s Den, I read the following: In September 1942, a lone Japanese...
When our kids were in grade school, we pastored a wonderful church on the Oregon Coast for several years. Coastal towns can be great places to live, and our family still looks back on those years with great warmth and affection. Shortly after we arrived in Newport, we...
For the last several years, I’ve been reading how people are attempting to rewrite Scripture, softening its impact to make it easier to digest. This applies to sexual sins, the consequence of a person who has lived a life of disobedience, and whether hell is real or...
At Christmas time, we all have traditions we follow. Those good traditions bring families together in joyful celebrations. There is another kind of tradition - a negative kind. These are the unexamined religious traditions. They can lead us away from a pure and simple...
Every individual, city, and nation will have an opportunity to respond to the message of Jesus or to reject Him. The choices people make about the message of Jesus will determine their fate. After Jesus returned to his hometown of Nazareth, His familiarity with the...
Jesus revealed a principle of spiritual warfare while He was asleep in the back of a boat, as a severe storm struck while the Lord and His disciples were crossing a lake. Water began to enter the boat as Jesus continued sleeping. His disciples, men experienced in...
A seminary professor once said that to fully understand Jesus, we must read and understand what was prophesied about Him in the Old Testament. That full and historic manifestation of Jesus builds our faith. Many believers today are unaware of what was written about...
There’s a significant difference between teaching from a place of revelation and teaching facts and other people’s opinions. Revelation releases God’s authority. It will confront the spirits embedded within the Church that are influencing and controlling people. This...
A voice from the past is now speaking to the Church of today. His words carry a somber reminder of who we have become and what must be done before we can experience true revival. A teacher and evangelist named Leonard Ravenhill addressed the condition of the Church in...
Living a life that pleases God has powerful implications. When Scripture tells us that God covers His people with His hand, it means His hand becomes a protective covering for us if we live a life that pleases Him. If we choose to step away from His extended hand and...
The quality of our faith will be revealed by the choices we make or what we allow to happen when we are asked to follow a failed leader. In the books of I and II Kings, the various kings listed in those books who ruled over Israel and Judah were described. The...
A few years ago, the Lord told me to look at the subject of finances for prophetic insight. The root of all kinds of evil is found in how our finances are handled. The opposite is true. Goodness can also be discovered in how we handle our finances. We are standing...
As we grow older, Jan and I are considering, even reconsidering, some of the choices we make regarding our lives. For example, we've had to put down two wonderful dogs in the last 10 years. Just yesterday, I told Jan, "If we ever get another dog, we should get one...
The name "Jezebel" has been tossed out without discernment. To label a woman as a Jezebel has become too flippant, especially when it's being used to describe a strong female leader who is spiritually stronger than the weak men who accuse her of being a Jezebel....