“You Did What?” and Other Questions You Shouldn’t Ask When Counseling
As a pastor, I have the opportunity to do quite a bit of counseling. I get to sit with the people that I care about deeply and delve into the problems of their life. As I’ve been doing this more and more over the last 6 years, I’ve learned many valuable lessons. Most of my lessons were taught to...
Avoidance or Honesty: A Path We Must Choose When Talking with God
If you’re like me, you can find a thousand excuses for putting off something you don’t want to do. I can walk a mile around a mess I don’t want to clean up. I can make twenty unimportant phone calls until I finally work up the courage to make that one really important and difficult call. Sounds kind of like...
Preaching to Apease?
Phillips Brooks, in his Lectures on Preaching, said a powerful statement that should be tattooed on the minds of all those who approach the pulit: “If you are afraid of men and a slave to their opinions, go and do something else. Go and make shoes to fit them. Go even and paint pictures which you know are bad but...
Redefine Greatness: Living Out God’s Definition of Success
I came back from a long day of classes and meetings, just wanting to let my mind unwind. As I set my bag on my chair I notice that across the top of my desk someone had written in black ink, “REDEFINE GREATNESS.” At first I just wanted to know who had done it, and what kind of message...
More of God: When Grace and Honesty Collide
So how do honesty and grace connect? The grace of God is the very thing that allows us to be honest. If it were not for His grace – the combination of his unconditional love and His unrelenting mercy – we would not be able to say the things we need to say to God. Because He is full...
The Tragedy of Focusing on Peace More Than Christ
“Imagine there’s no heaven…it’s easy if you try. No hell below us, above us only sky. Imagine all the people living for today.” Perhaps the words I just read sound familiar to you. They were the opening lyric to one of the most influential songs in pop history. The young people of the 1960’s & 70’s embraced John Lennon’s song...
I Want to Desire God, but How? Tips for Your Pursuit of God
Grasping for a relationship with God isn't always easy. If we are honest, it can sometimes even seem impossible. Yet, in the Bible we are commanded to seek after God with all our heart, mind, and soul (Deuteronomy 4:29). But how are we to pursue a God that we can't hear, see, or physically feel? Here are a few biblical tips...
Avoid Being a Dumb Ox: Tips for Abolishing Pride
In high school there I had this one girl that became the bandit of my breath and the captor of my heart. She was my dream girl and I was sure I was her dream guy. I had built myself up in my own mind to the point that I was convinced I would meet this girl’s wildest dreams and be...
The Power of A Ten Minute Task
You know those project in your life that seem to always be there and never really make progress? I seem to have many of these. There are things that I have either procrastinated on or that seem to mount faster than I can keep up with them. There are also are those project that are never urgent, but simply...
The Essential Elements of Christian Corporate Worship
Within the Body of Christ, worship is more than musical songs of great arrangement or harmonious melody. Worship is the underlying effort of all the saints gathering together to praise God through song, proclamation, fellowship and giving. In the book, Worship and Entertainment, A.W. Tozer states that worship is to be the perfect mixture of admiration, fascination resulting in...
The Search for a Biblical View of Counseling (A Helpful Article Review)
Dr. David E. Carlson wrote an intriguing article in the mid 70’s that was delivered at the Research in Mental Health and Religions Behavior Conference in 1976. It was title, "Jesus’ Style of Relating: The Search for a Biblical View of Counseling”. His goal for this article was to “Bridge the gap between carrying helping professions and dedicated to communicating...
A Great First Step to Sharing your Faith is to Shut Up
The command for us to share our faith literally in black and white in the Bible. But I gotta tell you, just getting a conversation started with someone about Christ gives me Godzilla-sized butterflies in my stomach. I get so nervous (and I'm a pastor). I have come to realize something – one of the greatest things that we can...