When life hands you trouble, you need to dig below the surface of your experience. You need to dig below the surface of your expectations. You need to dig below the surface of your disappointments. You need to dig until you find the richness of faith.It is like oil. Oil is precious to our way of life, but it is forged deep within the earth under tremendous pressure.That is what we dig for; the kin...  Read More

          I believe that God heals today. But in the end, there are no cures, only postponements. The scriptures say “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” Unless Jesus returns again in our lifetime, everyone must face death. I have been dying since the day I was born, but no one has really prepared me for death.There are no cures, only postponements. The shadow...  Read More

       It has been said that the church is the only institution that shoots its wounded. When there has been moral failure or exposed sin, or even just questionable behavior, then the church has been quick to punish. Excommunication, while not formally practiced, has been informally exercised in the church. People who don’t measure up are often ostracized or put down or maligned. The truth is: She...  Read More

If you were given an outrageous sum of money—say something like $30 Million dollars, how would you spend it; some on friends and family, then some on yourself? Here is a question for you. How much would you spend on your enemies?To say that Christ died for sinners’ means that God spent Jesus even on those who were opposed to Him. Being a sinner means standing in the place of Adam and Eve, shaking ...  Read More

          Charles Spurgeon, the great English preacher, told this story from his pulpit in London:          A woman had been hired by a very rich man to take care of his household. She served the rich man faithfully for over twenty years. When the wealthy man was about to die, he called the poor woman to his bedside and thanked her for her faithfulness to him. He had no heirs, and therefore decide...  Read More

          King Hezekiah of Judah went on a mission from God. The second book of Kings records Hezekiahs reforms—going around and demolishing things and places that were used for idol worship. One of the things he destroyed was the bronze snake that Moses had made.          If you remember the story, the Israelites had sinned and God had punished them with venomous snakes. After many people had die...  Read More

Many people sit around waiting for the church to do the work of ministry. But in the New Testament, the church is not a building or a meeting; the church is literally ‘the called out ones’; it is the people of God.A young man once approached his pastor on a Sunday morning, upset because he felt like the church wasn’t doing its job. On the previous Monday, he had met a man while going to work. This...  Read More

          Jesus had just been asked by a lawyer what the most important commandment was in the Law of Moses. Jesus, sounding more like a hippy than a preacher, replied “It’s all about love”.          Then he went a step further and mentioned the second most important command: love your neighbor.          Love, love, love. What in the world was Jesus trying to say?          We should remember that ...  Read More

I am not suggesting this, but if you were to take a mild tranquilizer half and hour before a family meltdown, you would probably convey great peace when it happened. Your anxiety would lessen and you might float through the whole thing calm and gentle. Conflict in the family would seem like no big deal, and you could approach problems calmly as long as the effects of the pill lasted. Perhaps your ...  Read More

While you can work too much, it is not true that you can emphasize work too much. Work does not produce nervous breakdowns, despite what you may have been told. Work as hard as you like and as long as you like. If you’re in normal health, you will come to little harm, especially if your labor is in the Lord.Why? Because it is tension that kills, not work. It is getting caught in the Christian rat ...  Read More

How can we humans have an encounter with a spirit-God who is both invisible and holy? We cannot see something or someone who is spirit. And the sight of his perfection—his holiness—would kill us.Even so God, who is always more ready to draw near to us than we to him, can and does reveal himself in symbolic forms. Some are simple and easy to understand and others are baffling and complex. But whate...  Read More

Forgiveness does not just let things float. Of course, it is easier to let things float than it is to have a knock down drag out with someone who wronged you. You purse your lips, shrug your shoulders and say ‘whatever’. But that is not forgiveness.Christ’s forgiveness was direct, positive and deliberate. Ours should be too.There was a missionary who had been wronged by another. “Yes, I will forgi...  Read More