As we enter the New Year we recognize a few things: 2017 Was A Tough Year No doubt, there was a lot of good that happened in 2017. But there was also a lot of tragedy. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Jose destroyed hundreds of homes and shattered countless lives while wildfires ravaged both Northern and…
Let me start by saying that the video below is a moving and powerful expression of God’s love for us lived out through the vocations of his children. I urge you to watch the video below and share it with your friends and family. You can find out more about the video HERE. That being…
When I was a pastor, one of the greatest challenges was to try to figure out how to bring Jesus into our communities. We would talk about that a lot—in our staff meetings, in our elder meetings, in our deacons meetings. I would talk about it from the pulpit. I would write e-mails about it. …
We’ve seen in this post and this post that God has been at work in the world ahead of his people throughout the scriptures. He was ahead of Joseph (Genesis 37-50), ahead of Daniel (Daniel 4:10-17), ahead of Peter (Acts 10:19-48), and ahead of all the apostles (Acts 11:19-30). If we see examples of God at work ahead…
The “previousness” of God, which I wrote about HERE, refers to the idea that God is already at work in the world before his people even get there. It refers to the fact that God doesn’t need to wait for us—God can begin his work well before we have even realized what God is up…
I’m a big believer in the sovereignty of God. What does “sovereignty” mean? It essentially means that God can and will do as God chooses. I know that raises a lot of questions. Questions about the existence of evil and why God doesn’t always prevent catastrophes. And what about free will? If God is sovereign,…
How do people grow in their faith? Well, the question I really want to ask is, what kinds of things do churches do to help people grow in their faith? Here are a few things we did in my church: Held worship services Sang worship songs Had small groups Asked people to usher and serve…
The unique way in which we live out our calling is what we call our vocation. I used to think of vocation as nothing more than a job. When I was in high school, I had friends who would go to a place called “Vo-Tech” in the afternoons, which stood for “Vocational Technology.” There they…
One of the greatest challenges for the church today is the re-integration of the sacred and the secular. Too many people live with the false belief that their Monday through Saturday lives are less important to God than their life on Sunday—especially Sunday morning. Too many people think that only pastors and missionaries and worship…