This is the time of year that people start setting goals, gearing up for their best, and get ready for hard work and unprecedented discipline. We’re heading into a new year with a chance to “do it better” this year. The old year is gone and all the...
There are two kings in the story of Jesus’s birth: (1) Caesar Augustus, and (2) Jesus. These are two very different kinds of kings, but they have a bit in common. Caesar Augustus was the most powerful man in the civilized world at the time of...
We always need to be ready. There is no time to lose. There is no room for negligence. Are you ready? There is an interesting little story in the Bible that Jesus tells about ten bridesmaids. Not a lot of people know this story, and rather than...
Have you ever noticed that Israel has to go through the wilderness before they can inherit the Promised Land? As the story goes, Israel was delivered from slavery in Egypt, and the way out of Egypt was through the desert. The final destination was...
There is an interesting story in John 12 that tells about a woman named Mary who anoints Jesus one week before his crucifixion. The story says that Mary pours expensive perfume on Jesus’s feet (and other versions of the story include...
I’m a terrible golfer, but I go golfing anyway. Occasionally I’ll even go golfing alone, which I enjoy. When golfing alone, I’ll often get paired up with other players to speed up the pace of play when the course is crowded...
I’m a stress eater. When things in life and ministry are crazy, when I feel like I’m losing control at work or at home, I eat. It makes me feel better. I makes me feel better because when I can’t exercise control in other...
Have you ever noticed that there is a pattern to the kinds of conditions and illnesses that Jesus heals in the New Testament? For example, on more than one occasion Jesus heals leprosy (Matt 8:1–4, Mark 1:40–45, and Luke 5:12–16), paralysis (Mark...
It’s really hard to be courteous to everyone always. Actually, it seems impossible. Not long ago I wrote a Saturday Sermon about a text in the New Testament that commands Christians to be courteous to all people (Titus 3:2). I wrote...
How do we get into the presence of God? Christian theology teaches that God is everywhere at once (omnipresent) and deeply involved in the outworking of events in history (immanence). At the same time, many people throughout history have sought...