Dietrich Bonhoeffer grew up in an upper middle-class German family of doctors and scientists. So when he told his parents that he wanted to study theology, they were not that excited. Dietrich later became one of the world’s foremost theologians and thinkers of the 20th century. He is not remembered as much for his public […]
Fear can hold you back, but the Spirit can make you bold. Probably the biggest excuse that keeps us from talking about Jesus is fear. We are afraid to talk to someone we don’t know. We are afraid of how they will respond. We are afraid of looking foolish or saying the wrong thing. We […]
Everyone is tempted, but how you handle temptation is very important to your walk with Jesus, and your own spiritual health. Maybe you have been fighting the same temptation for years without being able to shake it off. It’s like a broken record of temptation – sin, regret, repeat. How do you break that cycle? […]
Before you dive into making disciples in your church, let me encourage you with a few Do’s and Don’ts. Often pastors, in their zeal to make disciples, inadvertently do things that actually make it harder for them to do so effectively. So here are some practical warnings. Don’t start casting vision about disciple making immediately. […]
As you invest your life in people, some will disappoint you. There will be people you poured your life into who never really take hold of Jesus and follow Him completely. There will be some that start strong but fall away. Others will oppose you and resist any investment you try to make in their […]
Is God all powerful or all loving? Several years ago, I saw Martin Bashir, a news anchor for MSNBC at the time, interviewing a pastor on national television following a tsunami that killed more than 15,000 people in japan. He started with a question: “Help us with this tragedy in Japan. Which of these is […]
Obeying Jesus means living a holy life. The term holiness has fallen on hard times these days. Just try avoiding something that might be morally questionable and wait for it. People will say you have a “holier than thou” attitude or will call you a “holy roller.” The word “holy” itself is often misunderstood. What […]
When I talk to leaders about personally investing in people, I often get a bit of push back. For some reason there is a resistance when it comes to personal investment in people. When I first became a pastor, I didn’t know much about how to invest in a man’s life. Most of my training […]
Loving people will cost you. Once you decide to become emotionally and spiritually invested in another person, you feel the weight of caring for them and helping them to become all that God has created them to be. My wife and I were married for eight years before we had children. It was a great […]
Jesus can use your greatest weakness as your greatest witness.Up to this point, we have been talking about your testimony; your salvation story. But I’m sure that as you think back over your life, you could find many stories — outside of your salvation — where Jesus met your need or ministered to you in […]