Blog
In every generation, something is revealed that seems to scorch the reputation of God’s people. Betrayals, lust, and greed are nothing new to Him, but they still surprise us. We are often unaware of our heart’s true condition. These exposures of sin remind me of what...
We don’t fully understand what God says or does when we don’t have the full picture. Anything beyond what we have personally experienced is naturally questioned and doubted when our human reasoning kicks in. Our natural mind cannot believe or accept it. In fact, our...
On a brief trip, I bumped into someone on a city street I had not seen in many years. For a short time, she had attended one of the churches Jan and I pastored. From her appearance, it seemed the intervening years had been challenging. Immediately after our...
Jan and I were having a phone conversation with a husband-and-wife pastoral team. They are good and sound leaders. In our conversation, we talked about how to lead a church through a tumultuous season. As the conversation progressed, the Lord spoke about continuing...
From time to time, the Lord will lead me to worship Him with songs about the power of His blood. This attention to the blood is both an act of warfare and preparation. It's always a reminder that the Lord is doing something new and redemptive. I was once invited to...
Over the last 50 years, I've had what I would call multiple Pentecost experiences. In these experiences, I received a fresh anointing of the oil of God’s Spirit, equipping me to engage a new season. My task was to maintain that anointing by daily seeking God and His...
Many Christians obsess over the quality of other believers' faith. This obsession is the root cause of many of our divisions. If all participants can establish that Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life, all these divisions will work themselves out if we all...
From time to time, we need to be reminded of the presence and purpose of God’s angels, whose assignment is to help us navigate the perils of this life. For some, the presence of angelic activity sounds strange, even cultic. They may dismiss the present-day activity of...
Our greatest spiritual asset is intimacy with God. Without that intimacy, we will attempt to fill the void with things like experience, education, or a religious position as replacements for intimacy with the Lord. None of those replacements creates intimacy with God....
Every leader in God’s Kingdom needs to lead from a high place where they can see what is happening to the people they are called to lead. They also need personal help when their personal strength can no longer support their calling. No leader can function properly...
Those who want to change God’s word to accommodate their sins are being influenced by a spirit. That spirit has been called “the spirit of the age.” It wants to rewrite God’s word to comply with a degrading social norm. Sadly, for some in the Church, it has become...
Sometimes, a person is so given over to sin that the consequence of their sin must run its course. It’s like what happened with Pharaoh, who laid upon Israel the bondage of slavery, and throughout his enslavement of God’s people, he and the nation suffered a course of...
Each night, before bed, I pray that the Lord will protect us during the night hours. Last night’s prayer was different. I was given the impression that I was to add something to my prayer in the form of a request. Knowing I am approaching the last lap of my earthly...
The Church can become numb to the reality of hell’s power to imitate works of God in an attempt to deceive God's people. Hell can also do signs and wonders, but only to a point. The devil will use everything at his disposal to deceive us, even using the power of magic...
Thirty-five years ago, I discovered the meaning of our family name, “Elkins.” It means “Jehovah is God.” Our family name can be traced back to the Hebrew name “Elijah.” Discovering the origin of our family name had a significant impact on my life. There is a greater...