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Free Counseling Notes Template
As a counselor, taking notes is one of the most important parts of my job. The details shared with me in a counseling session are sensitive and critical, so I want to capture what I can. I also hear a lot of information over the course of many cases, so taking notes helps me keep the details straight. I...
Defending Against Satan’s Five Most Common Plays
Satan is a crafty enemy, but I don’t want to give him too much credit. He is my enemy because he is an eternal against my God. I cannot tolerate him, bear the thought of him or even stand typing his name. I loathe his existence. Sadly, too often we act as if Satan is just some evil version of Casper...
3 Keys to Helping Someone Through Loss
This may sound a bit off, but consider this a pastoral confession: I enjoy being involved with people at their greatest point of loss. There is nothing more tragic than the loss of someone you love. Death is hard, no matter when it comes. As a pastor, I am often involved in helping people through the loss of their loved one,...
Taking a PAUSE to Pursue Peace
When it comes to describing the current state of our world, peaceful is not the word most people would use to characterize culture. God calls us to a kind of peace that doesn’t mean living in the absence of conflict. Instead, He gives us a roadmap for navigating the struggles and disagreements that come when sinful people engage with one another, inevitably leading to broken relationships. Here is a way to take PAUSE to pursue peace.
Keeping Less So We Can Have More of Life
One of my new favorite pastimes is to get rid of things. Over the last few decades of life, I have managed to collect boxes of keepsakes, paraphernalia and "I might use that someday..." stuff. I have literally filled my basement with who-knows-what. If we had a flood, I would not be able to tell the insurance adjuster what...
A Preacher’s Job is Proper Contextualization
“If you over-contextualize and compromise the actual content of the gospel, you will draw a crowd but no one will be changed. That is nothing less than a dereliction of the preacher’s duty. You will mainly just be confirming people in their present course of life. On the other hand, if you under-contextualize, so that your communication of the...
7 Bible Resources That Make Great Christmas Gifts!
(This post may contain affiliate links, read full disclosure here) It's Christmas time around the world and that means the Christmas wish list is filling up fast. I know my own kids are already talking about what they want for Christmas. You may have your own wish list this year. What do you want to impact your life the most this...
Practicing Biblical Interpretation in Everyday Life
Annually, on the first Sunday of the year, I take questions from our congregation in place of the usual expository sermon. Many have shared that it is one of their favorite traditions at Grace Chapel. This conversational sermon style allows us to get into topics and address questions that certain pericopes of Scripture may not address. I will be honest—though...
Smell Like Sheep
A man once told me that I smelled like sheep. At first I really didn’t know what he meant; all that could come to my mind was visions of the many smelly shepherds that I saw in India out with their flocks on back country roads. I didn’t even have to get close to those wretched men to know they...
Sermon and Study Notes for Luke 19:11-27
This is without a doubt one of the hardest of the parables to exegete. I struggled with this passage for nearly twice as many hours as it takes to prep a normal sermon. Therefore, I feel it is all the more important to give my resources away for this sermon. Here are my files: Study Notes For Luke 19.11-27 - A...
Treasuring Christ Above All Things
Being worthy of Christ does not seem like an achievable goal to me. How can I “earn the right” to “be entitled” to something as high and noble as Christ Himself? I was struck with a passage today that spoke of being worthy of Christ, or on the contrary, it explained what makes us unworthy of Him. Matthew chapter...
The Cross and the Eyes of Love
I once heard a pastor tell this story: There was a priest that lived in the 1700’s. One Sunday morning he got in front of the church and said, “Tonight I am going to preach a sermon without using any words.” The people in the congregation thought, ‘A sermon with no word, those must be the best kind, we will...
