Read: John 10:10 Not a Minute Too SoonJohn 10:10 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Maybe one of yours too. It talks about a thief who comes “only to steal and kill and destroy,” set against the contrasting intention of Christ, who comes that we may have “life, and have it abundantly.”I think most of us believe in that truth. In theory. In the abundant, ever-filling, overflowing life tha...  Read More

Read: Ephesians 3:1 I mentioned before that these two verses, Ephesians 3:20–21, are what’s known as a doxology. If you attend a more traditional church, you may sing the “Doxology” as part of your worship service sometimes: “Praise God from whom all blessings flow . . .” You know the one? Doxologies, for us, whenever they occur, usually happen in our Sunday best. With the organ playing. With the ...  Read More

Read: Psalms 34:17-18 Get everything out of your head except now.As we begin looking at Ephesians 3:20-21, it’s important we look at the very first word, which conveys its crucial context: now.I understand that the current conditions in your life may not be your favorite thing to dwell on right now. You may have become more adept at concentrating on earlier, back before some of these parts of your...  Read More

Read: Ephesians 3:20-21 Some things are just hard to describe. You search your brain for the right word, but you can’t seem to find it.Like trying to explain the view of a cloud-filled sky from an airplane window seat at 36,000 feet. Or an unusually moving worship service where God’s presence was particularly near and tangible. Sometimes even our most spectacular vernacular still seems insufficien...  Read More

Read: Jeremiah 29:11Isaiah 41:10 There is a fire within all of us that is waiting to be ignited. A fire that grows and can spread to those around you if you continue to feed it’s flames. This fire is stronger than the uncertainty that you may be feeling. It has the power to overcome the negativity that may be surrounding you right now.That fire, that passion, that inner strength was instilled in y...  Read More

Read: Hosea 6:3Psalms 18:30 Things don’t always go according to our plans, but they will always adhere to the plans of the Lord.Life, however, is not lived without any bumps in the road. Failure is not found within these bumps, it is found when we allow these bumps to stop us in our tracks. Don’t become so discouraged in the delays that you give up on the pursuit of your purpose. We cannot control...  Read More

Read: Psalms 46:11 Peter 5:7 We cannot always be certain of what is going to happen. There is no telling what the future will bring to anyone. We can make educated guesses. We can make assumptions. We can try to notice patterns and figure it out, but no one knows what tomorrow will bring. All we have is today.And today is enough.You have survived every bad day so far. Every circumstance and setbac...  Read More

Read: John 14:27Psalms 94:19 In the digital age, information is provided to us faster than ever.You can Google anything you’d like, and you could read about that topic for weeks. With the click of your mouse, or the tap of your finger, you can learn all that you need to know about anything. While this should be a positive aspect of the time we live in, it isn’t always. With an abundance of informa...  Read More

Every day, people all over the world turn their tv on and watch the news. Global events are discussed on nearly every channel. Negativity is all over the internet. Magazines and Newspapers, while not as popular as they once were, are still found in abundance. And the fear and negativity is still found in abundance, as well. You can’t avoid it. It’s in our faces 24/7. Negativity is a plague. But what do we do? We turn up the volume. We click on the link. We flip to the next page.  Read More

Discipleship is a lifelong journey because God is an inexhaustible God. We began by saying that God is the goal of discipleship. We must end by saying that, since we can never fully comprehend all that God is, we will never “arrive” this side of eternity. Even then, we will spend endless days drinking in the fountains of God’s beauty and glory.  Read More

If we only focus on forming our minds, we will not become deep disciples. We can’t neglect the habits, because we are not just disembodied minds, but whole people... ...The most central and essential spiritual habit is prayer. Like consistent Bible reading, nothing can replace a life of prayer.   Read More

Theology is simply what we believe to be true about God, and everybody believes something about God—even if they believe he doesn’t exist. Everyone is a theologian because everyone has words about God. Everyone has gone to seminary—has learned how to think about God. The question is, have you been taught how to think about God by God, or by something else? Everyone is being discipled; the question is, by whom?  Read More