When you discover an intense experience, it becomes yours. You adopt it, mentally and permanently. And once it’s adopted, it stays in your memory as a part of your experiential history. Continue Reading
April 16, 2015
When Truth Isn’t Enough
Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. - Romans 12:15 Continue Reading
April 15, 2015
Digested But Untested
“Believers think of themselves as individuals first, Americans second, and Christians third. Until that prioritization is rearranged, the Church will continue to lose influence, and biblical principles will represent simply one more option among the numerous worldviews that Americans may choose from." - George Barna “Prove all things; hold fast what is good.” - I Thessalonians 5: 21 Ask a roomful of believers if they’re all on the same page, and they’re likely to say yes. Ask them to then read aloud from the page they’re on individually, Continue Reading
April 14, 2015
Staying Power
“By our Heavenly Father and only because of God, only because of God. We're like other couples. We do not get along perfectly; we do not go without arguments and, as I call them, fights, and heartache and pain and hurting each other. But a marriage is three of us.” -Christian entertainer Barbara Mandrell, answering the question of why her marriage works I know my wife loves me. But I think it’s taken more than that to keep her with me for 28 years. She also loves, and is obedient to, God. And that’s where a Christian marriage gets its Continue Reading
April 6, 2015
When ‘My Bad’ Really Is Bad
“Keep in mind that when sin is viewed superficially, it is dealt with superficially.” -Erwin W. Lutzer When something gets me really mad, or really scared, I do something about it. When something seems technically wrong but excusable, I shrug it off. So what I deal with seriously, combining decision and action, tells you a lot about what really matters to me and what doesn’t. Continue Reading
April 1, 2015
The Confident Heart
For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. (I John 3:20-21) John says, in the verse quoted above, that if my heart does not condemn me, then I have confidence towards God. Sounds nice. But how can my heart not condemn me? Continue Reading
March 31, 2015
When Consciences Collide: Making Sense of the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act
“It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others.” -Thomas Jefferson Been There, Done That Had That Done to Me Amidst all of today’s clamor over discrimination based on religious or moral standards, I’m remembering an incident when I was on the receiving end of it myself. Continue Reading
March 20, 2015
Newsong Church: In Tune or Off Key?
In the screwball comedy classic Bringing Up Baby, Cary Grant, dressed in a woman’s bathrobe, jumps up and down shouting, “I’ve suddenly gone gay!” He could have been speaking for a growing number of congregations today. Continue Reading
March 18, 2015
We Who Are Seen
“And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, “Thou God seest me” For she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?” - Genesis 16:13 Hagar isn’t the most sympathetic of Bible characters. Handmaid to Abraham’s barren wife Sarah, she had become pregnant by Abraham at Sarah’s insistence. (Genesis 16:1-2) You’ll remember that God had promised them a son, but Sarah, like so many of us, liked God’s promise, but not His timing. In her impatience she basically said, “Let’s help God along. He said we’d have a son but I’m still Continue Reading
March 16, 2015
When War Isn’t Hell
"If you have no temptations it is because the devils are your friends, your leaders, and your shepherds. And by allowing you to pass your poor life tranquilly, to the end of your days, they will drag you down into the depths." -St. Gregory Continue Reading
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