Jesus’ Words Cut Deep

Reading Luke 6 today and I don’t know if it’s because I haven’t read Luke’s account of the Beatitudes in a while, but Jesus words are very cutting today. In v20-26 He pronounces blessings on these groups: Poor – for yours is the kingdom of God Hungry – for you shall be satisfied Weep – […]

Assurance, justification, regeneration…oh my!

Great news! I’ve busted into the New Testament! It is so sweet to be reading the NT having read the entire OT…to actually SEE the prophecies come to life in Jesus…to see how much of the OT is quoted in the NT. Amazing. I’m in John 5 and I came across verses 23-24 and there […]

Are we being intentional?

Well, I’m up to Ezra in my chronological read of the Bible – the Jewish people, still mostly in exile or scattered, were now under the control of King Cyrus of Persia who overthrew Babylon. Cyrus lets the people go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and the temple. The Spirit stirred in the […]

New covenant

Ahh…Saturday mornings. Fresh cup of Java on the desk…Word open…not a peep in the house…yet. In my chronological Bible read, I’m up to Jeremiah (31 to be exact), it’s refreshing to see the shift in the tone of the book, moving from “this is what’s going to happen to you because you abandoned me no […]

How big is your God?

Seriously…how big is your God? Do you think of a God that is sovereign over all your current struggles? We tend to forget…or at least I do. I get a very narrow view, kinda like putting on the blinders. I focus solely on the problems, and not God. In preparation for leading worship on Sunday, […]

Please stop beating around the bush, Pastor Piper

I’ve just started digging into Piper’s “God is the Gospel.” I got it for Christmas…yes…I’m aware it’s JULY, but I have a lot of good books to get thru. I love Amazon’s “Wish List”…when birthdays or Christmas roll around, my family just checks the list and picks a book. Sweeeet. Piper poses a few pointed […]

Peace…amidst the bears

Last night was a really good night. We had our VBS Closing Program at church, the kids had a great week and it was so cool to end on an up note like that. We had pizza with friends before and ice cream after…pretty much your quintessential “good” evening. We got back to our friends […]

Are we still running hard?

I jumped into Tozer’s “The Pursuit of God” this morning, as I only have a few minutes I wanted to pass along the questions it spurred in my mind. Everything is made to center upon the initial act of “accepting” Christ (a term, incidentally, which is not found in the Bible) and we are not […]

Am I Done Yet? How about now. Now?

I gotta admit it, most of the time I’m a quick fix, “bottom line” kinda guy. I want to cut to the chase. I want things fixed NOW! Even in my own spiritual maturity, I just want to be fully sanctified already…knowing what to do in each situation, conducting myself with perfect poise and grace, […]

Idolatry…

During my morning 1hr 15min drive to work this morning, I was overjoyed (ok…just “pretty happy”) to find out that I had neglected a conference message on my iPod from CJ Mahaney at New Attitude 2007 on Idolatry. (Click HERE for the MP3) Needless to say, I had been thinking about idolatry a lot these […]