“I never thought about this before,” I said to Lynne as we were discussing a book someone had recommended to us. “Thriving in Babylon” by pastor Larry Osborne presents a unique portrait of Daniel the Prophet. I have always loved the book of Daniel, but like most students of Scripture, I tended to look more…
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” – Ephesians 1:3 (NASB) I’ll never forget talking to this dude in Florida who was one of the most lost and arrogant people I’ve ever met in my 59 trips…
We think we want to be rich – or famous – or powerful. We want to succeed. We want to achieve. We want more of this or less of that. These desires of ours are explicit; they define our goals and order our priorities. We salivate over them. But, deep down, they don’t reflect what…
Letter 28 Themes: Fear of and blessings of death; spiritual perseverance; middle aged prosperity and adversity; worldly attachments; spiritual attrition, earthly utopia. Letter 29 Themes: Cowardice; pride; hatred; courage; despair; God’s motive for creating a dangerous world; superstitions involving hypotheticals; relying on God alone. Letter 30 Themes: Duty, purpose, pride, cowardice, fatigue, peevishness, disappointment, total…
When I was a younger Christian, I was eager to add labels to my Christianity. Today, people too often will use labels. I am a High-Church / Low Church, old earth / young earth, charismatic / non-charismatic, pedo-baptism / credo-baptism, Arminianism / Calvinism, liberal / conservative, Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Non-denominational “Christian.” Through the years I…
“Time to get our flu shot,” Lynne said as we drove past our local pharmacy. We blow hot and cold on getting the flu shots. They develop flu vaccines using the most likely flu variants expected the following year. Sometimes they work; sometimes they don’t. They also develop other vaccines to prevent contracting other serious…
Letter 25 Themes: Mere Christianity; novelty; pleasure; fads; discontentment of the Same Old Things; jargon. Letter 26 Themes: Unselfishness (self-denial); charity (agape love); erotic enchantment (eros love) in courtship. Letter 27 Themes: Spiritual distraction; petitionary prayer; the nature of time and prayer; Historical Point of View.
Timothy was a young man who traveled with Paul on his ministry travels and became the pastor of the church in the city of Ephesus. In a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, he offered this warning: “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of…
“At 10,000 feet above sea level, when I pray, I’m practically whispering in God’s ear,” I texted a friend the other morning. “Hahaaaa! That’s really cool,” was his response. As often happens, when I am trying to be clever, I often hear God whisper back to me, “Is that what you really believe?” As a…
Letter 22 Themes: Spiritual dossiers; hedonism; pleasures of God; power of Christian influence; music and silence. Letter 23 Themes: Value of intelligent Christian community; corrupted spirituality; “historical Jesus;” social justice. Letter 24 Themes: Spiritual ignorance and pride; need for social validation; humility; arrogance; the inner ring.