Blog
Continuing on from my previous post about a Gospel of grace, Paul wrote a warning to the churches in central Turkey. Speaking with apostolic authority, he pronounces judgment on Jewish preachers who were perverting the Gospel of grace. They were mingling grace with...
It’s not pleasant to buck an evil world system that also includes a religious system, It is uncomfortable to face the mixture of half-truths that have infiltrated and compromised the Church by that same system. It’s not easy to face our own propensity to live from our...
At this time in my life, I am struck even more by this writing of Paul’s: “As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has...
Each morning, as I water the plants in our front yard, a little hummingbird comes and sits on a wire that runs atop our Rose of Sharon tree. Its appearance is like clockwork. The hummingbird even sat patiently for me while I went inside our home to retrieve my phone...
I recently watched a video about hyenas. They make an annoying shriek. When an entire group of hyenas is shrieking en masse, it gives off a mocking sound. At certain times, the voices of disagreement we hear in our culture sound like a pack of hyenas shrieking in...
When God exposes our sin, He has a purpose for that exposure. He wants to set, and in some cases, reset the boundary of our lives where the Lord, not our rebellion against Him, defines our lives. Micah was a prophet. He prophesied about the people's accountability for...
Learning how to rest in God is one of the most powerful experiences we can have in our lives of faith. The more we learn how to rest in God, the things we pursued to fill the void of our emotional and spiritual restlessness will diminish their influence on our lives....
Yesterday, I wrote about the need to pray for our judges. Later that same day, I had an encounter on a trail in the forest, which was a confirmation of the word I wrote. For the last 23 years, I have always wondered where a particular trail went. I always assumed it...
For the courts of any nation to extend true justice, those sitting as judges in the courts must experience a change of heart – they must hate evil and love what is good. The prophet Amos expressed what happens before a judge can adjudicate true justice, "Hate evil and...
While Scripture tells us that faith is the substance of things not seen, it can also be the substance of things we refuse to hear. It's sad to see many Christians dismiss people because they have been told to reject them or they are not willing to listen to what they...
Our greatest failures are not the end of our faith. They can be the beginning of something much deeper if our hearts remain tender and responsive to God and open to His process of restoration. The restoration of Peter had similarities to his three denials of the Lord....
Predictions are different than revelation. Revelation comes from God and can run contrary to the wide variety of human predictions of what people think will happen in the future. Many times, revelation will stand alone, enduring the mockery and dismissal of the...
Some think the presence of the Spirit is expressed by our feelings or emotions. It can include those things as a response to the work of the Spirit, but the primary ministry of the Spirit is to bring a conviction of those things that are not aligned with God. Just...
The phrase "Coming Out" has been attached to the self-disclosure of a person's sexual orientation. There is an entirely different form of coming out. It applies to the Church. The former coming out refers to sexual perversions. The latter is making Jesus known. "Jesus...
When I wrote the book, Prayers from the Throne of God, the Lord gave me the most important ingredient for our prayers. That ingredient was to first discern the heart of God before we begin to pray. Without that understanding, we will not be praying the will of God. We...