It has been quite a while since I have written a blog entry whose sole purpose is to encourage so I hope that this one encourages each person who reads it. I am currently reading a book by Henri J.M.…
Is The Minimum Ever Enough
A young man came to Jesus one day and asked him an important question: “What must I do to have eternal life?”. What do I have to do to meet the minimum standards in order to live forever? Peter came…
Revisiting My Past
While sitting at my desk this morning, lightening struck. Obviously it didn’t literally strike my house but a thought flashed through my mind that was as sudden and startling as a bolt of lightening. I am no longer young. I…
Discipleship vs. Evangelism
In a conversation with a church leader whom I deeply respect, he raised a concern about churches putting an emphasis on discipleship. His concern was that with a stress on spiritual formation and whatever else churches might consider as part…
Questions That Never Get Asked
When I was a young boy, there were certain questions that I always hoped my parents would never ask. Even as a child, I knew that they asked these questions for my own good but I still dreaded the questions.…
What About The Lions
“Would you tell him about the lions?” I heard that question asked once in an interview with Bill Hybels and Dallas Willard. They were talking about one of Willard’s books entitled The Great Omission and in the midst of that…
Asking The Wrong Question
While reading this morning I had one of those sudden insights that for me happen only rarely but are often life changing when they do come. They aren’t particularly brilliant. In fact sometimes they are just old thoughts expressed in…
The Need For Character Transformation
“We believe that each member of the human race is fallen, sinful and lost; that salvation is possible only through the shed blood of Jesus Christ and is received on the basis of faith alone apart from works and is…
The Need for Spiritual Transformation
Bill was a young man whose life was being destroyed by alcohol. As he had done many times before he went out drinking on a Saturday evening. When he got home all he could do was collapse unconscious on his…
Impact Through Transformation
Impact is the measure of a church’s effectiveness. For the past fifty years numerical growth has tended to be the measuring stick that experts have used to measure the success of a church. When I first graduated from Bible college,…