I recently finished Tyler Staton’s book, “Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools.” There are some books that I trudge through by the sheer power of pride so that I can say, “I read that book.” Yes, I realize that’s not a good motivation! I’m growing in giving myself permission to simply put a book aside…
My bride and I love our kids. Honestly. We enjoy hugging and kissing them. We enjoy holding their hands, though they’re quickly seeing that I’m not nearly as cool as they once thought I was! We love seeing them smile and hearing them laugh. We love when they ask questions about Jesus, truth, the Bible…
“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:44-45) We cannot know what it means to love our enemies until we have to do it. We must be hated in order to know what…
Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash I love that quote from Woody Allen. It’s raw, honest, and all-too-familiar for a lot of people. And yet, we know there are instances that if we choose not to say something we’re not loving the person, but rather loving ourselves. That is a sobering thought. Too often an individual errs on…
Photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash Before you accuse me of not taking ownership of my sin, hear me out. Timothy Keller said, “the functional cause of our discontent is that our loves are ‘out of order.’” Keller is quoting Augustine who said that our issues are reduced to disordered loves. What does Augustine mean by disordered loves?…
We normally think about time management in terms of personal productivity – we want to manage our time well so that we can accomplish things, finish what we start, achieve goals, and pursue excellence. We want to avoid time wasters, unorganized schedules, and time spent on things of lesser priority because it robs us of…
Rosaria Butterfield continually speaks grace and truth in a way that is deeply powerful and insightful. Here’s an article she wrote recently on evangelizing your LGBTQ friend. Read here. Noah Oldham on what difficulty in your life has taught you the most. Read here. Parents of children of all ages know all too well that…
Photo by Jeremy Perkins on Unsplash This past Sunday I made the statement that the underlying reason for our sinful behavior, thoughts, affections, and words stems from unbelief. For sure this unbelief manifests itself in a lot of ways but I humbly believe it is an overflow of not believing the truth and promises of God’s Word and…
Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash Do you grow tired of the militaristic posture characterizing many individuals engaged in a discussion? I sure do! Whether it’s a fly-by political discussion with someone at Fry’s, an in-depth conversation with an acquaintance over religion, or a perusal of Facebook where people pontificate on any and all issues, I find myself…
Photo by Omar Prestwich on Unsplash Grouchiness about other pastors’ churches? Their size? Their coolness? The number of conversions they see? Their creativity in programming, marketing, sermons? Nope. Not me. Never. I promise. I’m always kingdom-minded and thankful for the work that God is doing in and through other churches. God tells us to “rejoice always” (1 Thes.…
Theology Along the Way 