Virginity as A Mindset: God’s Standard for Sexual Purity
Culture screams that sex is just a part of life and nothing more than a Saturday night entertainment activity. You can turn on the T.V. or open a magazine and find that most pop stars, movie stars, and sports stars demonstrate a life style that years ago was only promoted by porn stars. Frankly, I’m sick of culture portraying that...
The Biblical Mandate and Procedure for Church Discipline
God has laid out a clear mandate and plan the universal church to call people to repentance because He cares for the souls of men and their reconciliation unto Himself. Many people over the years of church history have avoided the commands to discipline people for the sake of repentance. Some church congregations have made excuses as to why...
Dear Christian: Stop Using the F Word, FML and WTF
Far too many young people are using the F word as a creative expression without consequence. This must stop. The F word is a vulgar word that perverts the gift of sex God has given us and uses it to express a negative feeling. Nothing about that sounds like something a Christian should be involved in. However, many Christians are ...
“Abide” – What Does it Mean to “Remain in Christ”?
This weekend I started the new sermon series called “Abide”. For two weeks we will be studying what God says through His Word in Chapter 15 of John. Perhaps there is no more important sermon Christ gave while on earth than the simple instruction to abide in Him. But what does that really mean? What does it look like for...
Why OmniFocus is Great for Pastors
The main role of a pastor is to care for the sheep. One of the main ways that we care for those in our churches is by meeting (or exceeding) expectations. If a pastor remains unorganized, then he is bound to fail expectations and therefore not tend to the sheep. Why are met expectations essential for shepherding? As pastors, we represent...
A Prodigal’s Tale and the Search for Peace
The young man trudged along the rocky path to the field where his master’s pigs waited for their breakfast. His muscles were stiff and sore from sleeping in the barn, with nothing for a bed but moldy straw, which even the goats refused to lie on. He poured the foul smelling buckets of food over the fence and marveled...
Peace at Last: The Homecoming You’ve Waited For
Everyone goes through life with a gnawing sense of unease, an unspoken dread we’ve lived with for so long we hardly know it’s there anymore. It taints everything we do with a strange sense of displacement and dissatisfaction. Even when things are going our way, at the end of the day, alone with our thoughts, the whispering anxiety remains....
The Messiah in the Book of Isaiah
The storyline of redemption unfolds throughout the Holy Scriptures and reveals God’s intent to reconcile people to Himself and establish His kingdom on earth. With each turn of the page we find a piece of His plan fall into place, His promises kept, and His prophecies fulfilled. The book of Isaiah is one of the clearest depictions of all...
Killing Giants: Tips for Getting Through Daunting Tasks
How do you kill your giants? That's right - One at a time. Yes, there are millions of saying like this, but there is truth in all of them - if we are going to take care of those monstrous tasks before us, we have to just take it one little step at at time. Lately Iv'e been in one of the...
Is “The Gospel” Just a Vintage Throwback Term We Are Trying to Make Cool Again?
Vintage. There is something about things that are vintage – relics of the past – that cause a certain amount of hype within each passing generation. For people my age, we like things that remind us if Mr. Rogers, 80’s music through a boombox, Gumby, Mario Bros., The Smurfs, and New Kids on the Block. Major companies and sports teams...
The “If Only” Game We Play with God: A Lesson for Dealing with Divine Disappointment
Anger is the aircraft carrier in the fleet of our emotions. Not only because of its massive size, but also its ability to do harm because from it proceeds a multitude of other feelings—grief, sadness, hatred, loss, horror, and doubt. Anger in itself is not necessarily wrong. It is an emotion God has given us, but as with anything...
Avoiding Lies From Hell by Acknowledging Satan is Real
Allow me start tell you a story that still sends shivers up and down my spine. I was sitting on the New York Subway with a few friends, when a man literally crawled on all fours through the doors and upon the seat across from me. He was wearing all black, with black eyeliner and a pale white make-up...