You gotta love modern medicine! My first semester in seminary I came down with a nasty sinus infection. I went my local Urgent Care. The Doc prescribed some really potent antibiotics and I was back to my studies within 36 hours. Amazing and awesome!! But this must be frustrating for some docs because not every ailment can be treated with pills. I…
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There is a really interesting scene in the movie, Groundhog Day, where weatherman Phil Connors is trying to figure out what is going on. He sits at a bar in a bowling alley with two local guys who are drunk, and he asks them this question: “What would you do if you were stuck in one…
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You read a title like this one and think, “Yeah, right! Nobody knows that.” Well, that may be true, but you’ll have to decide for yourself after reading this. I think there’s something to be said for the secret I’m about to share. What makes life unhappy? Hardship. Suffering. Trials. These make life unhappy. But…
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Titus 1:1-4 tells us about Paul’s ministry patterns and principles. Because we are part of the apostolic ministry, these patterns and principles Paul adopted, ought to be patterns and principles we adopt as we execute God’s game plan for the Christian life. We’ll consider two patterns of Christian practice we need to cultivate in our…
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While it may not jump off the page at you, the main theme of this chapter is idolatry. So we’re going to ask and answer the following questions: 1) What is idolatry?2) How is idolatry diagnosed?3) How is idolatry cured? 1) What is idolatry? When we hear the term ‘idolatry’ we think of wooden or…
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It’s my prayer to see the local church be a place where people are given a taste of the new heavens and the new earth. The church is meant to be a harbinger of heaven to come. If the church is going to do that well, it must possess compassion. Without compassion, a church will become judgmental,…
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How does God’s grace affect change in people? I don’t know for sure, but sometimes I wonder if our mental picture of God’s grace is something that is soft, warm, and cuddly. If grace was personified it would be that newborn baby in the hospital nursery swaddled while everybody on the other side of the glass…
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Jonah is a biographical account of a man who is deeply religious, but far from God. This book gives the reader various aspects to a life that is religious, but spiritually dysfunctional. In chapter 1, we discover one aspect to a dysfunctionally religious person. Like Jonah, people like this have a category in their heads…
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There are two things every religion in the world agrees on. First, they all agree there’s something wrong with our world. Second, they all offer some ideal future. But that’s where the similarities end. In Hinduism the “problem” is Samsara, or the cycle of reincarnation. The goal is Moksha or freedom from this cycle. And…
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Our nation is experiencing some tense times internally. Battles have been and are still being waged over same-sex marriage laws and all the implications of it. Dust-ups over religious liberty and abortion rights land on news websites every day. As a pastor, moments like these are opportunities to remind Christians of the bigger picture. Sometimes…
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