“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.” (Luke 12:35-36) I’m praying for revival, and I hope you are too. Consistently. Fervently. Alone in my prayer [...]
Category: focus
Ushering in His Appearance
Last month we explored what revival looks like. I’d like to continue with the revival theme this month, since this is what’s on my heart. But I want to look at it from another perspective … not so much the WHAT and WHEN but the HOW. How can we help bring revival to our oh-so-thirsty [...]
The Signs (and Hope) of Revival
Just before the First Great Awakening in the early 1700s the spiritual landscape of New England looked much like today. There were only 2 believers in the student body at Princeton. Only 5 did not belong to the filthy speech movement of the day. And the few Christians on campus were so unpopular they met [...]
Giving It All
With Coronavirus all around us, it’s hard to turn our minds towards anything else. Consumed by worries we never thought possible before – keeping a safe distance from others, washing our hands after every possible contact with the virus, and wearing gloves and masks when we do have to go out – we are shell [...]
The Antidote to Betrayal
Nothing hurts us like betrayal. It’s hard enough when an enemy turns on us, upending our lives with cruel sabotage. But when we’re betrayed by someone close to us, someone who’s shared life with us for some time, we’re stunned by the enormity of the pain it brings. As a quote I found online expressed [...]
Love Actually
February is the month we acknowledge and celebrate love. People have written a lot about the wonder of love. Some of the quotations we’ve memorized, we’ve heard them so much: “Love is blind” (Geoffrey Chauncer); “Love conquers all” (Virgil); and “’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all” (Alfred [...]
On Assignment for God
The first time I encountered the idea of my life circumstances being an assignment from God was when I got diagnosed with cancer. Because I had seen others get healed miraculously, instantaneously by God, I assumed that’s what would happen with me. But when the results kept coming back as positive, and the doctors told [...]
Cultivating a Thankful Spirit
From the mounting scientific evidence, gratitude seems to be good for our health. The leading American researcher in this field, Robert Emmons, found it lowers blood pressure, improves immune function, and facilitates more efficient sleep. Other benefits include lower levels of cellular inflammation, more prosocial behaviors (that foster new and better relationships), and greater resiliency [...]
Training for Godliness
When I was a young Christian we used to crack jokes about 1 Timothy 4:8, thinking it was justification for not staying in good physical shape. Here’s how it reads in the KJV (the version we read back then): “For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the [...]
Food that Perishes
What do you get teased about in your family? Everybody in mine knows I’m likely to push second helpings onto dinner guests and offer leftovers to them as they leave our house. Why? Because I have a thing about good things being wasted. I’m not sure where I picked up my aversion. It was probably [...]