So your pastor preaches on giving? Thank him! He’s giving you some important news about one of life’s greatest secrets. A pastor who invites members to tithe invites them into a life-changing, soul-transforming experience that affects every area of their lives. In truth, it’s unfair to you if he’s not teaching you about this principle that’s changed history in…
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8 Movements of Prayer
Our culture knows the Lord’s Prayer from movies, locker rooms, hospitals, masses, worship services, funerals, and turbulent flights. It’s a cultural default prayer that we use when we want to pray but we don’t have the words to pray conversationally. We often forget that the Lord’s Prayer reveals a powerful outline and a radical message…
Worship is Change
Worship changes us. However it begins with letting go. We worship best when we empty ourselves. That’s the mystery of worship. We must find ways to completely abandon our self-importance. It’s a paradigm that is opposite of “show business.” Amazingly we seem to get the two paradigms confused. Worship is mystery. Not agendas, not strategy,…
14 Prayer Modes
Download the Powerpoint! 14 Ways to Pray St. Paul urges us to: Rejoice always! Pray constantly. Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Here are 14 prayer modes that allow us to pray always in all circumstances, all postures, and in every emotion of life. 1. Together…
The Ministers Could Not Minister
1 Kings 8 records an historic worship experience. The Ark of the Covenant found its home. Smoke filled the temple. In fact we read this in verses ten and eleven: When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD. And the priests could not perform their service because…
I Am Clay
My life is on the wheel Earthbound clay Molded Wondering Why are His hands changing me? Poking, prodding, pounding (it feels like punishment sometimes) Moisture pouring out of me. His hands working, With purpose What is He creating in me? What does He see? Is there a purpose in the pain? Stretching, sensing, swirling, struggling I’m…
Employee or Family Member
To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Galatians 4:5 There’s a huge difference between employees in a demanding organization and a loving home of grace. And yet so often I confuse the two when I thinkof the Christian communitity. We often are intimidated by our sentences…
Beware of the Madman
Many years ago, I encountered a madman and he happened to be a pastor. He hired lots of young, idealistic staff and questioned them at every turn. They would all eventually limp away from the church he pastored wounded, shrouded in shame, self-doubt and anger. The harder they worked and the more they succeeded on projects and relationships, the more brooding…
If you’re a Lot, you’re a little
Look, this town is close enough for me to run to. It is a small place. Please let me go there—it’s only a small place, isn’t it?—so that I can survive. Genesis 19:20 This peculiar story is tucked away in the post fire-and-brimstone train wreck of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot and his family dodge their…
Jesus Loved Martha, Her Sister, Lazarus (and me)
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. John 11:5 Some versions enclose this verse in parenthesis- almost as if John whispered under his breath, “Oh, by the way, Jesus loved these three people.” I think to myself, doesn’t Jesus love everybody? But I doubt the verse would have as much power if John…