Raising babies or raising churches is similar. In both instances you need to pay attention to essential things. If babies don’t get smiled at, held tenderly, talked to, and fed the right foods they won’t thrive. Baby Christians and baby churches are much the same. The Apostle Paul understood this. It is one of Paul’s … More Bringing Up Baby
Years ago while living in California I had a number of experiences with sheep. We lived at the base of a place called Little Mountain in San Bernardino and there was a shepherd who annually grazed his flock of about 200 sheep on its hillsides. (Bit of Trivia: Little Mountain is the site where Sammy … More What Does it Take to Be a Shepherd?
Read Psalm 30 Covid-19 and a host of other societal changes has radically changed the world in which we live. As circumstances played out this year, I was deprived of the privilege of preaching Easter Sunday, but for all of us who have trusted in Christ, everyday is an Easter celebration for he has turned … More When God Turns Mourning into Joy
Tuesday is for Reminiscing The picture above is of our family at a Family Reunion on the Jersey shore some 20 years ago. I want to tell you about my daughter, but this story starts with my son. Some years ago, inspired by my son’s fantastic poetry, I was encouraged to continue to work on … More Can I Brag a Bit?
Read Psalm 74 and Psalm 38 Lament : to mourn aloud; to wail. 1 : to express sorrow, mourning, or regret for, … often demonstratively : to mourn 2 : to regret strongly Still another aspect of Lament in the Psalm literature of the Old Testament is confusion. The lamenting soul is tormented by confusion over … More Calling Out from Pain — Day 3
All this week I am posting a brief series in three movements: A morning praise to greet the day A mid-day praise to remind our hearts of our God’s greatness An evening praise to finish off the day Most of these will be infused with the language of the psalms based on a 30 day … More A Sabbath Week of Praise — Tuesday
Here is a startling observation. Nowhere in the Scipture are we told to develop leaders. Yet leaders for the church is one of the crying needs of our generation, in fact, of every generation. It seems in Scripture, that the assumption is that leaders will be developed in the natural process of making disciples. Out … More Where Do We Find the Leaders the Church Needs?
The Battle We Must Win This is a follow-up to yesterday’s post about “Don’t Grow Weary in Doing Good.” I am finding that the topic of spiritual battle is much on my mind these days. And part of my thinking is that perhaps as at no other time in my life and ministry, I am … More Praying Against “High Places”
Idea: Consider reading to the sound track of the BLOG. (“Aubre’s Gift” and the black bar to the right of this line.) Sanctifying the Day — A Call to Worship — “Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation! Let … More Entering into Rest
A Mid-Day Call to Repentance “Lord, our hearts are so inebriated with comfort and the bubble of our own little worlds. We truly are a people who are ‘entertaining ourselves to death?’ We are blind and lazy, and disengaged from real, sacrificial care for others. Even our acts of good seem to be mediated by … More Taking a Hard Look at Ourselves at Mid-Day
