While away on vacation I visited a handful of churches. I always enjoy being the anonymous guest of a church. I watch the pastor very closely. I also pay great attention to the people. In doing so, I try to learn from their unique perspective. This year, my visits included some resort churches and a …

Augustine prayed, What, then, art Thou, O my God-what I ask, but the Lord God?  For who is Lord but the Lord? Or who is God save our God?  Most high, most excellent, most potent, most omnipotent; most piteous and most just; most hidden and most near; most beauteous and most strong, stable, yet contained …

He is not DEAD, He is ALIVE He is not in HUMILITY, He is in GLORY He is not SUFFERING, He is SMILING He is not BEING TEMPTED; He is COMING TO CRUSH THE TEMPTER He is not LYING IN A MANGER; He is SEATED ON A THRONE He is not CARRYING HIS CROSS; He …

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.” Isaiah 30:21 People often refer to hearing God’s voice. More than a few preachers and teachers refer to hearing from God personally.  How does one …

I should not be surprised when God’s Word speaks to me.  Yet I am, once again, amazed what happens when I read and study the Bible on a daily basis. For example, in our daily Bible reading last week, I was confronted with a central truth repeated in the Scriptures. In the Old Testament we …

Leah is a vivacious seminary student.  Her bubbly spirit creates some spontaneous discussions in my class. Leah is married to Adrian, another student, and together they make a great pair.  They are in both my classes this semester, so I have grown to appreciate them in many ways. In my Spiritual Formation class yesterday we …

I want more I want more because I do not have enough I want more because I do not ever have enough I want more of what I have Yet what I have is not enough What I have is never enough I want more I want more of You, O Lord I want more …

When we speak of the Godhood of God we affirm that God is God. We affirm that God is something more than an empty title: that God is something more than a mere figure-head: that God is something more than a far-distant Spectator, looking helplessly on at the suffering which sin has wrought. When we …

Here is a keeper from Mark Dever in his book, Promises Kept: The Message of the New Testament: The nineteenth-century English preacher Charles Spurgeon once said to his hearers in London, “You are the same sort of person as those whom Jesus used to welcome.  They were good-for-nothing bodies; they were persons that were full …

“The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority.  Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself.  He has accepted God’s estimate of his own life.  He knows he is …