GOD WORKS INCREMENTALLY WITH US, TAKING US FROM SMALL FAITH TO GREATER FAITH I’m fascinated with animal training when I see a parallel between how a trainer works with an animal and how God works with us. The trainer’s goal is to get the animal to trust...
SEEING GOD'S PICTURES IN THE CELEBRATION OF COMMUNION God has created the physical world to picture spiritual truth Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God. But only those who see take off their shoes. The rest sit round and pick blackberries. Elizabeth Barrett Browning This...
THE BEST THING WE CAN DO TO HONOR "SACRIFICE" IS TO REMEMBER! (This blog post is coming to you a day early this week, and replaces tomorrow's normal post.) Christians everywhere should always be grateful for the ultimate sacrifice Christ made to secure our spiritual freedom and...
ACHIEVE YOUR GOD-GIVEN POTENTIAL BY RENEWING YOUR MIND Because we are transformed by what we let into our minds (Romans 12:2), our Christian life is won or lost by what we put into our minds (actively) or let into our minds (passively). But, as we saw last week, if...
There is power in repetition! Because of how the brain works, if something is truly important, it must be repeated until it changes you. How many times have you heard something really important in a sermon, in a book, in a conversation… and then you forgot about...
GOD REWARDS FAITHFULNESS TO HIS VALUES, NOT OURS One of the gates in the ancient wall around old Jerusalem is called the Damascus gate. If you go out that gate, the road leads you to Damascus. There's another gate that's called the Joppa gate. If you...
A SENSE OF PURPOSE WILL GIVE US THE RESILIENCE TO CARRY ON WHEN THINGS ARE DIFFICULT On May 5, 2015 David Brooks wrote in an op-ed column about "purpose" in the New York Times: “Every reflective person sooner or later faces certain questions: What is the purpose...
COUNTER THE FIVE REASONS WE FALL SHORT IN OUR FAITH WITH 5 WAYS TO STRENGTHEN OUR FAITH Last week, we looked at five reasons we fall short in our faith: Ignorance: We cannot do something until we know or understand it. If we do not have...
OUR PROBLEMS ARE THE SAME AS ADAM AND EVE’S Faith is the main thing in the Christian life. Scripture says: “Without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those...
WALKING BACKWARDS OFF A CLIFF CAN TEACH YOU A LOT ABOUT YOURSELF To be honest, the first time, I didn't actually walk; it was more like a crawl… a shinny actually. I was teaching at a college in Phoenix, Arizona, and one day several of my...