What is faith? Faith is confidence in what God says then acting upon it. It is not seeing what I can do or get God to do. Suffering, like it or not, is a key to Christian growth. Life’s humbling, humiliations, and our humanity burn away foolish notions about God and ourselves leaving us with a purer faith. We learn more about faith in suffering than study. Study produces doctrine, suffering produces depth: It’s a call to worship. Study teaches us truth about Jesus, suffering teaches us to trust Jesus. As faith matures, we gave God our Lot’s & Ismael’s (baggage/burdens/problems), now he wants our Isaacs (blessings/promises). Giving God the carnal things gives ways to giving Him everything...  Read More

Have you sought the Lord for emotional healing over some painful or sinful event but the help just didn’t seem to arrive? You’re in good company. Be of good comfort God is nearby. These messages (steps) weren’t intended to become a “formula for success” over the challenges of life. But they are helpful steps toward getting some vital emotional healing when life hurts. Moving from the hiding place - wounds, to the honest place - war, can be painful and frustrating. Sometimes we skip or misstep getting to the place we want to be. Toxic environments inhibit spiritual health and wellness. So do toxic people. Make some space. God permits you to get around others who encourage steps toward and into....   Read More

When your story is dotted or defined by painful events, losses, abuses, traumas, failures, and sins committed against or by you it is easy to retreat to the hiding place. Hiding people are everywhere. Like a wound under a bandage, the pain doesn’t go away in the hiding place. It can fester and manifest itself in all kinds of distorted beliefs and behaviors - sometimes for years or decades. Emotional wounds left uncared for may become a silent or violent war that rages within and outward toward others. You really can’t hide it; you just learn to disguise it – we “mask the pain”. Here's the second step to emotional healing...   Read More

We all have painful events in our lives. We get emotional wounds from things others have done to us, we’ve done to others, sin, things we’ve gone through, losses, tragedies - all of them significant. Left uncared for these wounds become infected - toxins inside of us that negatively influence our quality of life and relational health. But sooner or later these buried wounds bubble out. You and I bury pain, barricade or block events that have wounded us, and allow offenses and losses we’ve experienced or caused others to hinder us, hurt others, and distort our perception of God...  Read More

Did you ever do something stupid, and keep doing it while expecting different results? You’re not alone! Sometimes we want to get off the path we’re on, but are stuck in a rut – Same thing, try harder, get more stuck. We can waste our life spinning our wheels. If that’s your story, this might help...   Read More

Some people are famous for what they know or do. Some for competency, others for character. But what happens when character and competency align with a soul redeemed by Christ? You meet a man or woman with a mission to make the gospel visible and accessible to all. They’ve stepped into ministry to use their good character and competency to make a life-giving difference everywhere they live, work, learn, worship, socialize, and play. Look at three things you can do to be more ministry minded and engaging with the life-giving gospel:  Read More

The Bible is full of life-changing and life-giving encounters with Jesus and the gospel. When God touches a soul, rescues it, redeems it, repurposes it - that’s a story that must be told! Whatever your past, present, or future the gospel believed and received rewrites it. The gospel rewrites your story in such a way you cannot be silent about...   Read More

A friend of mine missed an appointment to his tryout for a MLB team! It was his opportunity of a life time but was too late! Maybe you feel like it’s too late in life and you’ve missed it. Don’t. The sins of God’s people can get under our skin and make us cynical of church. But a fresh vision of Jesus (and our own hypocrisy) can get us back to serving the Lord...  Read More

When you’re in that place where the more you try the messier it gets and you need God now, stop lamenting, and look! He’s working behind the scenes for the greater good, and ready to step in. When you’re overwhelmed by circumstances or overtaken by sin God is not distant. Whatever your lament, look for Him. Jesus is at work and ready to step in when...  Read More

At the weekly Bible study in the county jail, I’ve been challenged to make sure I’m not a liability in helping those hungry men understand why God became a man - specifically for them. Jesus is rarely comprehended because His word is barely considered. Each minute in darkness you trade for light in God’s word is an investment that reveals what you believe Jesus is worth. He did something for us so we would do something for Him...   Read More

In America, one in ten people have diabetes, turn to social media instead of their doctor for health information, don’t care at all about politics, and during the pandemic considered suicide. Yet there is another troubling stat Jesus gives that should also challenge us. Only one in ten helped by Jesus give God praise and thanks. Nine out of ten are ungrateful! For some, the power of the gospel is within grasp. Jesus makes it visible and accessible. Religion is enough for nine out of ten, yet they walk away outwardly changed but no closer to Christ...  Read More

Many with whom we live, work, serve, and socialize are molested and managed by forces set on their destruction and we may lack the power to effectively engage to make a difference. Let’s look at two people who need to engage against powerful forces bent on destruction but lack spiritual effectiveness. One is a parent, the other a professing follower of Jesus. (From Mk 9:14-29):  Read More