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, and 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…
Photo by Julio Rionaldo on Unsplash I don’t hate my sin like I know Jesus calls me to. I compare and contrast. I downplay. I fail to see at times the far-reaching effects of sin. I fail to see that just as God has created us as communal beings, my sin is also communal and has a negative…
One of my favorite leadership expressions says that if you think you’re leading people but no one is following, you’re not leading – you’re just taking a walk. A surefire way to get people to stop following is to be demanding and correct them constantly without offering profuse encouragement. As Mark Chanski says in his…
I can’t overstate the gift that friends have been in my life. It’s not that I didn’t appreciate or value friendships in the past, it’s more of me coming to an understanding that I will not make it without friends. Read that sentence again. I mean it. Friendships are a gift of Jesus that have…
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…
No one enjoys feeling trapped. When you feel trapped, you feel suffocated, pressed in, like there’s no way to escape. Many Christians live feeling like they are trapped in sin. While we experience the joy of Christ changing us through the power of the Spirit, there always seems to be certain sins from which each…
Adultery doesn’t just happen. More often than not, there’s a slow drip of relational disconnectedness and over months and years, the drip becomes a cascade of deep, relational conflict culminating in the decision to commit adultery. A Christian needs to be aware of the chain of events that often leads to adultery and realize that this…
Martin Lloyd Jones in his book Spiritual Depression made this statement I found helpful as I think about training my mind to meditate on truth and speak truth to my heart : Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of…
Photo by Felix Koutchinski on Unsplash A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense. Proverbs 19:11 Jesus-like wisdom makes us patient people and patient people are forgiving people. Instead of becoming irritated, wise and patient people overlook the sins of others. Q: What does it mean to overlook the sin in other…
Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash A couple weeks ago I met with a friend who recommended John Newton’s book, “Letters of John Newton.” John Newton was once a strong advocate for the slave trade and lived a deeply immoral life as a sailor. Through the gospel, Jesus saved John Newton and used his life in a remarkable…
Theology Along the Way 