Mother’s Day is once again upon us, sending children of all ages scurrying to the greeting card aisle to find just the right sentiment to send to Mom. Mother’s Day touches all of us – though not all of us are mothers, all of us have a mother. It is true that the calendar date […]

 Let me offer a theory I have based on personal experience: mothers are some of the most intense prayer warriors that anyone could ever hope to have. I never need to check the weather where I live. If there is ever any sign of a storm, my mother, who lives almost 300 miles away, will […]

Matthew 21PALM SUNDAY: JESUS ENTERS JERUSALEM (March 29, AD 33)Matt 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-10; Luke 19:28-44; John 12:12-19After three and a half years of public ministry, Jesus’ messianic activity is now reaching a major climax. As Jesus’ brothers had told Him earlier, anyone who claimed to be the Jewish Messiah must reveal Himself to be such […]

Amos 5I wonder if you ever feel a disconnect between Sunday morning and Monday morning? On Sunday you join God’s people in praising Him for who He is and what He’s done. Brilliant. But then Monday brings traffic jams, relentless emails, grumpy colleagues, dirty diapers. The worship of God feels like a distant memory.Amos 5 […]

Matthew 5-7The Lord’s Prayer is a passage of Scripture that just about anyone who self-identifies as a Christian can quote. Go ahead and close your eyes and recite it to yourself. I would even wager that this prayer ranks in the top three of people’s recognition level of Bible passages–right after John 3:16 and Psalm […]

As a pastor’s kid, I was at the Church whenever the doors were opened. That meant Sunday School, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and of course the midweek prayer meeting. I dreaded the prayer meeting. Except for a short time of prayer at the end, it was just like any other service–a few hymns and a […]

In Luke 18:10, Jesus tells a parable about two men who went up to the temple to pray. Prayer is to be a part of worship. Paul wrote to Timothy that the priority for the church in Ephesus was to pray (I Timothy 2:1, 6). In Matthew 6, Jesus indicated that prayer is a key […]

The gospel is an old hymn. The gospel is sheet music printed in antiquarian typeface on a yellowed page in a dusty book. It’s the “old, old story” and the “old rugged cross.” It is four verses—and please don’t skip the third verse to expedite the invitation! The gospel is an invitation to a bygone […]

When we talk about worship, we often paint ourselves into a corner and relegate the topic of conversation to music. This results in even less constructive conversations about style and preference, traditions and pragmatism, but it hardly ever begins with the premise of asking God what He wants. If we were to read through the […]

I have never been a particular fan of the expression, “What Would Jesus Do?” Partly because it doesn’t work in every scenario. How is that question going to prevent you from drowning? Jesus would just walk on water. Also, what about situations Jesus never faced? He was never given a ballot to vote, and yet, […]

The Letter to the Hebrews sets forth the superiority of Jesus Christ. It was written a few years before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. The letter was addressed to second generation Hebrew Christians who had come under intense pressure from unbelieving family members, close friends, and possibly employers to leave […]