“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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
The Baby Boomers among us will remember the old Phil Spector song (1958) that declares: “To know, know, know him is to love, love, love him; Just to see him smile makes my life worthwhile. To know, know, know him is to love, love, love him. And I do. And I do.” Of course, he [...]
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 [...]
In our western culture of excess, choosing to start small seems strange. We like to launch our work with a big splash, overwhelming everyone with our instant success. Even in our churches, we’ve adopted strategies that mean bigger and bigger buildings, more people on staff, and a congregation so large people have to be divided [...]
Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” And his question continues to echo down through time. What can we believe? Is there objective truth apart from our perceptions and opinions? Or is truth merely what we want it to be? Today we have to wrestle with philosophical propaganda, wishful thinking, blatant lies, and fake news all [...]
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 [...]
Adventuring with God 