Blog
A couple of years ago, a friend of mine sent me a shofar from Israel made from a three-foot-long curling ram’s horn. I used to shy away from that instrument because I associated it with ancient Israel. Now, when I hear its sound and after learning a bit about how to...
Have friends or even family ever deserted you because of difficulties you faced while standing for the truth? They’ve been ashamed or embarrassed to be associated with you. And it cost you. If you have, you can allow Paul’s healing words to come alive in you and be a...
Paul wrote to Timothy, a young leader overseeing multiple churches in Asia Minor, instructing that in every place of worship, men and women should pray with hands lifted to God, with a pure heart, free from frustration, anger, and controversy (see 1 Timothy 2:8-9)....
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...
The greatest threat to any earthly kingdom is the loss of its power. This threat is especially true when it comes to the kingdom of darkness, which is the core motivator of all evil on earth. When a threat to authority is discovered, those associated with that threat...
Last night in a dream, I was sitting with a group of leaders in the Church. As they spoke about the success of their ministries, they spoke about what they needed to accomplish as the goals of their respective ministries. In a pause in the conversation, it was my turn...
Every few months, as I hike the trails above our home, I need to transition between forest lands on a section of paved road. It had been a few months since I hiked that stretch of roadway. On a previous hike, I noticed several discarded bottles of Fireball whiskey...
The title of this post is from an old children’s hymn. Its title is appealing to some who have reduced Jesus to a warm and fuzzy cuddle doll, not the full spectrum of His life. They do not allow their theology of Jesus to hint at a demonstration of His power and...
The Lord is reordering His Church. He is examining our hearts to see if we are truly following Him or a muddled and confused version of Him and His Kingdom. After the crowd saw Jesus feed the five thousand, something happened. "When the people saw him do this...
It's hard to convince some people that what we are saying is the truth. The rejection they use to justify their dismissal is a form of disbelief, revealed through the misguided assumptions they have about our message, and their familiarity with us. Social media has...