the church I see

[A pastor’s response to the vision and fall of Hillsong] Yesterday, Mel and I binged the new Docuseries about Hillsong. (It’s only three episodes so maybe it was more of a “mini-binge.”) It was extremely revealing to see this done from a non-Christian worldview. However, this is how the world sees the church, and it […]

Confronting Christianity

Some books I buy just for the title, and this was one of them. The subtitle is even better “12 Hard Question for the World’s Largest Religion.” We need to be asking the hard questions. We need to be encouraging our people, especially our youth, to ask the hard questions. Why? Because unfortunately so much […]

Words

As I was reading thru the book of James this AM, I was reminded of how many times in this book we are exhorted to keep a close eye on the words that come out of our mouths: Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger (1:19) If anyone thinks he is religious […]

A Worship Problem

You may have heard me say it a lot – worship is not only just singing. In fact, singing is a very small percent of worship – we worship with our entire being and person. We are all created to be worshipers, therefore we all worship something – so what is it? God created the […]

Self-Alignment

“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous […]

Jesus Prays for You

John 17 is a very rich passage – it’s Jesus’ prayer before he is arrested, falsely tried, beaten and crucified. In it we see several things that are emphasized. Glorifying God – Jesus glorified God on Earth. How? By fulfilling the Father’s plan perfectly and faithfully. Likewise, we glorify God by doing his will – […]

Path to Peace

In John 14:15-31 Jesus describes a sequence of interdependent events – If you claim to love Jesus you will know and obey his word (14:15, 21) If you love Jesus, you are loved by the Father (v21) If you are loved by the Father, Jesus loves you and reveals himself to you (v21) If Jesus […]