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...
We can too easily think that those who do not agree with us are the enemy. We can form narrow assumptions and miss a greater truth: we cannot always discern who the real enemy is, those who are shaping our thoughts and leading us to make false assumptions. That...
The Church is in transition. The Lord is leading us to a new place that needs new leaders. Some leaders lost their authority due to disobedience, but those failures will not prevent the Lord from fulfilling His promises. This transition mirrors a pivotal moment from...
As nations strategize for war, the Lord has secret plans that He will reveal to His followers at the proper time. Initially, the revelation of God’s plan will be rejected by the strategists, to their dismay, because they made their plans using human logic rather than...
Jan just sent this blessing of encouragement to a man on the other side of the globe who, with his various businesses, is bringing great change to his nation. This has not been without government interference and political warfare. This blessing is not just for him;...
Each year at this time, plots of daffodils sprout and blossom in fields and gardens. Their appearance is a colorful announcement that spring has arrived. Daffodils are not concerned with wars and rumors of wars. They follow the impulse of their bulbs that have lain...
Many times, people will speak prophetically, quoting Moses, telling them they will become the head and not the tail. They forget to quote the full verse where that phrase is used, “If you listen to these commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you...
When hiking the trails above our town, I will occasionally see something left behind. It could be a single glove, a jacket, or a pair of sunglasses placed in an obvious place for the owner to find. Fellow hikers place these items in a conspicuous place for the...
As a young boy, when our family went camping, I watched how my father set up our campsite. Everything had a place and purpose, from the stacking of firewood and the maintenance of the fire to the placement of cooking utensils and the disposal of our trash. Each item...
No matter the visible failures being exposed in the leadership of the Church, the Lord remains forever true and faithful to His promises. He will never fail us. People will. A simple reading of Scripture reveals that these failures will occur in our time because they...
On the trail system above our home, new trail signs have been placed on the entrances to each trail. In the last few years, the old signs had become worn, some of them unreadable. The trail names haven’t changed. The new signs were put in place to make sure...
From time to time, we can slip into a subtle kind of pride. That pride makes us think we are better than those whom we condemn. We become stubborn and unchanging when our pride takes hold of our thinking. It’s a slippery slope that must be checked because on...
In the prosperity the Lord has given to all of us who live in the United States, we should never forget why we enjoy such prosperity. If we forget that it was the Lord who gave us so many blessings, we will wander into ways of thinking that lack the gratitude and...