Tag Archives: Faith

Posted on

12 Ways To Live As Citizens Of The Kingdom Of God

As a minister, I’ve been asked a wide variety of questions, some valid, others not so much. Probably one of the questions I hear most often is how to grow as a Christian, or how to grow in righteousness.

Kingdom

Psalm 15 is a brief, and yet detailed account of this very thing. In the previous psalm, David wrote about the folly and the wickedness of mankind. In this psalm, though, he looks at the other side of the coin. He describes what a citizen of the kingdom of heaven looks like.

Over the years, a wide variety of books have been written about this topic. Some of them are worth reading, others are not. Some give some excellent pointers, others seem to offer very little help at all.

But David’s brief description in this psalm offers several key characteristics to develop, and a few to avoid as well.

Posted on

How I Revitalize My Faith

This post was written as an editorial article for the Hernando Today, published on January 3, 2013.  You can see the article here.

 

Writing New Year's Resolutions

With the start of a new year comes a lot of New Year’s resolutions. It’s a fresh start, a time to begin anew in so many different areas of life. It’s the perfect opportunity to review where we’ve been and where we want to go.

One of the areas many people strive to revive is the spiritual life. While there are many ways to bring renewal to this foundational element of life, here are a few that I find especially helpful in my life, and in the life of my family.

Posted on

Believing In Miracles

We started a new series this week in our youth ministry. Over the next few weeks, we are taking a look at several of the miracles that Jesus performed during his time on this earth.

As I read through many of the miracles found in the Gospels, I started asking myself several questions.

Water To Wine

I’ve read each of these accounts before. In fact, using the Bible Reading System I’m currently experimenting with, I’ve read them several times this year alone.

But reading them all together has allowed me to see them a bit differently.

And it brought to mind some hard questions.

Have you ever seen a miracle?

I’m not talking “natural” miracles, like sunsets or butterflies or newborns. We tend to overuse the word, throwing it around everywhere, effectively neutralizing its real definition. No, I’m talking about the real thing. I’m talking about a miracle like Jesus performed. Water turned into wine. A storm calmed. Blind eyes opened. The dead raised.

I know these things still happen. I know God is still working powerfully. I just don’t think we see them as often as we used to. At least here in America, that is.

I have a few friends who are missionaries. One is in China. Another is in Africa. The stories I hear from them give me chills. People are experiencing miracles like crazy, and it sound very New Testament-ish.

But I don’t see that happening as much here in America. And I’m asking myself why.

I think I may have the answer, or part of the answer, at least.

Posted on

Responding To The Devastating Tornado In Joplin, Missouri

Yesterday evening a very destructive tornado hit Joplin, Missouri.  This is a devastating event, for a lot of people, and there has been a tremendous loss of life and property.

Tornado Damage in Joplin, Missouri

Tornado Damage in Joplin, Missouri

St. John's Regional Medical Center, Joplin, Missouri

St. John's Regional Medical Center, Joplin, Missouri

I have several close friends and family members in the area, and my wife’s sister lives very close to where the tornado hit.  We spent some time on staff at a church in the Joplin area in 2004-2005.  Our son Titus was born there, in Freeman Hospital, just down the road from where the tornado struck.  And Heather and I both graduated from Ozark Christian College, on the north side of Joplin. We are well acquainted with the area and the people.

After several phone calls yesterday, we’ve finally determined that our friends and family are all ok.

Posted on

The Battle: Rise Of Darkness

Our church is performing a pretty extensive evangelistic drama this week.

It’s called The Battle:  Rise of Darkness.  And it’s incredibly bold and creates and atmosphere where people are faced with the reality of life, death and eternity.

The Battle: Rise Of Darkness

Here’s the concept:  The Battle has several scenarios.  In each of these scenes, someone dies.  Sometimes it’s several people that die.  All of a sudden, they are in the presence of Christ, and whether they enter heaven or are cast into hell depends on how they lived their life.

With several scenes portraying different tragedies, this drama is a major dose of the spiritual reality that we often ignore.  Some of the include a car accident, a gang fight, a robbery gone bad, an earthquake, a plane crash, and a young child who gets a hold of a gun.

Like I said, it’s pretty intense.

Posted on

Invisible Children: Speak Out Without Speaking

Human trafficking is a growing crisis in our world.

And many of us aren’t even aware that the problem exists.

Human trafficking occurs in three main forms:  sex slavery, forced labor, and child soldiers.  Many of you may know that our church and youth ministry are supporters of Rapha House, an organization that strives to end sex trafficking in Cambodia and other Asian countries.

But what about the other forms of slavery?  How do we combat those?

One opportunity is by partnering with Invisible Children.

Invisible Children Banner

Invisible Children was founded by three young filmmakers after a trip to Africa.  While there, they learned about the longest running war on the entire continent.  It is a conflict started by one man, Joseph Kony, who now terrorizes four countries with his LRA, the Lord’s Resistance Army.

It is the longest running conflict on the continent, and the soldiers are children abducted from their homes and forced to fight.

We are a movement seeking to end this conflict and bring them home. We seek to rebuild schools, educate leaders, and provide jobs in Northern Uganda. We are the motivated misfits and masses redefining what it means to be an activist.

Posted on

Book Review: The Final Summit by Andy Andrews

The Final SummitAndy Andrews has quickly become one of my favorite authors.

I was first introduced to his books a couple of years ago when I read The Noticer.  Another of his stories that I loved was The Heart Mender.

And I think he’s done it again.

The Final Summit is Andrews‘ newest book.  I sat down with it and read it straight through.  I didn’t stop until I was finished.  It kept my attention the entire way through.

While not as captivating as The Noticer or The Heart Mender, The Final Summit is well-written and extremely interesting.

Here’s the main idea:  David Ponder is nearing the end of his life, so he thinks.  Suddenly, he is visited by the archangel Gabriel, who has come for him. But not in the way David thinks.  Gabriel has come to escort David to a Summit, full of history’s most brilliant minds.  Their goal:  to find the solution that will save humanity from the horrific disaster looming in front of them.

David is allowed to choose only a few of the world’s best leaders and thinkers to help him discover the solution.  Can he do it in time?

I would highly encourage anyone to read The Final Summit.  Even though it’s a fictional story, it is full of incredible insight and wisdom, much like many of Andrews’ other books.  You need to read this one.  It will change the way you think about life.  It will change the way you involve yourself in the world that surrounds you.

Do something.  Read this today.

If you are interested in reading The Final Summit, you can purchase it at Amazon.com.

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze blogger review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Also, some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links”. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.“