I have been spending some time in Ephesians recently.It's actually the place in Scripture I go whenever I am feeling spiritually malnourished.Yet in all the times I've read that letter, I had never noticed 4:22 where Paul describes to the Ephesian Christians what kind...

I'm quite sure it's not original with me, but recently I have been praying that what God does to me he would then do through me.So that if he fills me with joy, that same joy would then flow through me to others.If he drenches me with the Holy Spirit, that same Spirit...

John 5:24 got me today:I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.We usually feel like we have to wait for the other side of the grave to "cross over from...

There's a dangerous spirituality out there.I see it on both the right and the left.I see it in myself.It is a spirituality that serves as a mask for anger.That's right. Some people use their spirituality as a thin veneer that barely hides their bubbling anger.It's why...

On a day I was supposed to read Psalm 76 for the Bible study I am teaching, I inadvertently read Psalm 73 instead.Now I know why.Psalm 73:25b stopped me: And earth has nothing I desire besides You.Man. Earth has nothing.That'll probably be a sermon series one day.In...

Many years ago, Jack Hayford said this to a group of pastors in a conference I attended: "Don't worry so much about growing a big church. Grow big people, and the church will take care of itself." Obviously, Dr. Hayford was not referring to body mass index.He was...

Psalm 63:1 begins with some familiar words:O God, you are my God,earnestly I seek you;But then there's a twist in the next phrase, a twist that has me thinking:my soul thirst for you,my body longs for you,A body that longs for God? It sounds too physical, too sensual,...

Psalm 28:7 stopped me in my tracks recently:The Lord is my stength and my shield;my hearts trusts in him,and I am helped. It's the last line that gets me.Not "I hope to be helped." Not "I might be helped." Not "sometimes I am helped." Instead, a simple, powerful...

Romans 8:20-21 makes a rather remarkable claim: For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of one who subjected it, (THAT MEANS GOD IS THE ONE CAUSING FRUSTRATION) in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its...