Discipleship has many stages. Like in marriage, we go from infancy to maturity only if we’re willing to become “one” with our partner. It requires a “letting go” of our individuality so we can embrace a new identity together. Married couples who continue to live like singles never experience what the bond is intended to [...]
We’ve often heard how Christianity differs from other world faiths—"It’s a relationship, not a religion.” While this is a glorious truth, how many of us believe it? Or, to put it better, how many of us ACT AS IF we believe it? Most of us express our faith in Jesus by duties we perform. We [...]
When it comes to taking BIG risks, God tops us all. He risked creating mankind in His image, knowing we would fail and unleash all the devastating effects of sin into an otherwise pristine world. He risked His reputation by entering into a covenant with a small group of mostly unfaithful people who would [...]
When David was fleeing from King Saul, long before he was crowned king himself, he ended up in a cave in the wilderness called Abdullam, which means “fortress” or “refuge.” While there, as improbable as it seemed, he gathered to himself a group of 400 men ready to follow him. Their “qualifications” weren’t exactly what [...]
I’ve been troubled lately by some posts I’ve seen on social media. I know … this is nothing new. There’s always something we can find on those sites that we don’t like to see or read! But in this case, the entries that trouble me are posted by fellow Christians. We all see things from [...]
We’re not sure how Jesus was feeling when He said it. Was He sad? Frustrated? Stressed out? Or just lamenting? Whatever the case, it was a heads-up moment for His disciples—a foretaste of what lay ahead for them. In Luke 12:50 Jesus says, “I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under [...]
If you play tennis, racquetball, squash, baseball, cricket or golf, you know about the “sweet spot.” It’s the location at which the object being struck (usually a ball) absorbs the maximum amount of the available forward momentum and rebounds away from the racket, bat, or club with a greater velocity than if struck in other [...]
Most of us long to be significant … to contribute something that’ll make a positive difference in the world. I remember studying psychologist Abraham Maslow’s theory about human motivation when I was in college. His chart—called the hierarchy of needs—was a triangle. The large base was made up of basic physiological needs like breathing, food, [...]
Picture the scene with me. Jesus has risen from the dead, validating His claim to be God in the flesh. He’s appeared to more than 500 people in the past 40 days (1 Corinthians 15:6) and now He’s gathered together His remaining disciples to give them their new assignment: something we call the Great Commission. [...]
The words that resonate with our generation are inclusion, tolerance, and diversity. We don’t like the idea of excluding anyone from anything, so we have a hard time digesting (or even understanding) verses in the Bible like these: “Come out from among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord. Don’t touch their filthy [...]
Adventuring with God 