Blog
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...
When Jan and I worked in Eastern Europe, I was taught a lesson I will never forget. One Sunday, I was preaching in a former Communist nation. As worship began, I placed my bible on the floor under my chair. Immediately, an old man came to where I was sitting. He...
The challenges we may soon face will require a tough faith. The terrain of what is before us will not be navigated by a weak and untested faith. A tough faith is a reliable faith able to ascend and descend unfamiliar and uneven spiritual terrain. Twenty years ago, a...
Not all who have been called to engage in spiritual warfare will assume their position in the battle. Some no longer believe such battles exist. They have stepped away from the conflict abdicating their role in defending truth. God is calling those with a willing...
The enemy of our soul has laid before us booby traps of deception. These spiritual booby traps appeal to our pride and naivety. Pride leads us into a place of vulnerability and then our naivety has us open the door to a well-planned attack that can take us out because...
Increasingly, Jan and I are turning off TV shows we began to watch on Netflix or Amazon in hopes of enjoying some simple entertainment. Some of these shows began to reveal content that left us feeling slimed. If we didn't make a choice to stop watching it would soil...
An increasing number of Christians have dismissed the Old Testament as irrelevant. Some in their dismissal have said it represents a cruel God, not the God of compassion. Those dismissals are very dangerous assumptions. As Scripture tells us our God does not change,...
There is a great deal taking place in our world that has people asking the question, “How did we get here?” The answer to the question cannot be spelled out at the moment the question is asked. We must trace backward to reverse engineer an outcome, perception, or...
Whenever God calls us to rebuild an individual life or a nation, that rebuilding process will be met with opposition. When the Israelites were instructed by the Lord to rebuild the Temple they started with the altar – a place of worship. The book of Ezra details the...
Have you ever found yourself asking, “What’s next?” We can ask that question about a whole host of life issues. What I am referring to is the next major event from a national or global perspective. I am asking about the impact that will come when that next...
The spirit of pride that caused Lucifer to fall from Heaven is the same kind of pride that will bring down earthly representations of the same spirit. Along with his blinding pride, Lucifer was accused specifically of a representation of his original sin, “You who...
Once, when I was pastoring, a woman I knew in our church made an appointment to see me. On the day of our appointment, my secretary led her back to my office. She didn’t say anything as she walked through the door and sat down. The woman looked directly at me and...
On a walk last week, I saw a group of turkeys sitting on a fence. It got me thinking about how we can become so afraid of offending someone that we shy away from expressing the truth, especially about hot-button social issues. To a passerby who wants to see a...