“We exist to make disciples of Jesus,” a church’s mission statement might say. You’ve probably seen that on a website or a church sign before. There are some in the evangelical world — especially some in the non-denominational church-planting networks — that place a heavy emphasis on making disciples.   As I was reading the... Continue Reading

In case you have not picked up on this by now, I am one who “experiences” the things I write about. I go through the tests, trials, frustrations, then the recovery, cleansing, and healing by God so I can teach those willing to hear the truth that God has taught me. My experience with contentment... Continue Reading

Scripture knows something about suffering and death. Many biblical characters, like the trapped residents of Oran, were faced with death while questioning God’s actions. “Some were tortured…others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword” (Hebrews 11:35­–37). Throughout its pages, humans (like... Continue Reading

Prayer is something to which we say we are very committed. Sure, we can all admit that we should probably pray more than we do. And, yes, we do have a few questions, like: why pray when God already knows what we need? And we may sometimes think it’d be good if we could do... Continue Reading

He will not wait with His arms crossed; He will not put them on spiritual probation; He will not wait to see if they can prove themselves genuine. Instead, He desires their repentance and the restoration of relationship so much that He’s only waiting for the slightest sign of return and He will come the... Continue Reading

From your vantage point, it may be very difficult for you to see how God controls your circumstances. In fact, you possibly just see Jesus asleep on His pillow in the stern. Do not be confused though. What seems one way to you is, in fact, different. God is in control.   I have a... Continue Reading

“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34:6-7). To remember the Lord’s name as David does in Psalm 119 v 55 is... Continue Reading

Praying in Jesus’s name aims at his glory, and the Father’s glory in him. “Whatever you ask in my name,” he says, “this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). When we pray with others, and they hear our prayers, invoking Jesus’s name redounds to his fame, his... Continue Reading

The Christian life is the graced process of becoming in practice what we already are in position.  There is mystery and deep complexity to these truths – not the entangling, cutting complexity of a thorn-bush, but the cooling, comforting complexity of ocean waves on a warm summer’s day.  It is unspeakably refreshing to contemplate the... Continue Reading

Scripture presents the gift of God’s Son as a historic fact that demands a response. The coming of the Magi fulfilled ancient prophesies: “The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising” (Is. 60:3).  Matthew’s record of their interaction with Herod the Great roots the birth narrative in secular... Continue Reading