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A Short but Critical Blog
Every day is the Lord's day, and not just Sunday, think of it that way or not. How does this reality impact your relationships? Your thoughts? Your motives? Your drives? Your ambitions? Your marriage? Your parenting? Your actions? Your desires? What would you add to this list? With whom do you need to share these questions? Lord, Make today Your day. That will make it a great day! Amen From Me Answer these questions God's way and you will make today a great day.
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8 Ways To Guard Against Moral Failure
Often I read of a Christian leader who has fallen in some form of immorality, sometimes active and sometimes verbally inappropriate, but always unexpected and inexcusable. It is unbelievably painful to see this happen, whether to famous or unknown leaders. Many years ago when I was young I did an internship with J. Vernon McGee at the Church of the Open Door in downtown Los Angeles. About half way through the summer Dr. McGee took an interest in me and began to talk to me every week about various aspects of being a pastor, particularly about remaining pure before God. He had a radio program, of course, and he often…
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4 Ways To Stop Fear From Making You Your Own God
“Be not dismayed . . .” (Isa. 41:10) How do you respond when fear becomes your master? How do you respond when fear so masters your life and your leadership that it becomes your god, when it so replaces Elohim, the Master of the universe and history that you lose all trust in Him and trust yourself instead? In those moments your thinking is distorted, your mind is confused, your life is distressed, and your motives are misdirected. You have become your own god because fear has replaced God in your life. You are dismayed, powerless, and hopeless. Here are four steps to take when you have…
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3 Ways God Provides For Leaders
I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand Isaiah 41:10 We believe 2018 must be a special year of God in our lives as leaders. Often we become so centered on what we must do to succeed that we forget what He does through us so we can succeed. In our first two blogs for this year we have seen 2018 as the year of God’s presence when He delivers us from fear and the year of God’s power when He overcomes all that overcomes us. Now, in this last of our first three-blogs for 2018, we see it as…
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3 Ways God Delivers Us From Dismay
Be not dismayed, for I am your God Isaiah 41:10 As we start 2018 we are focusing on God’s special role through us as leaders. We tend to think what we do determines what we achieve for Him and forget that what He wants us to do is beyond anything we can do apart from His enablement So as we begin 2018 we aim to transform our fear into freedom, our inferiority into confidence, and our emptiness into God’s fullness for us as leaders. Last week we focused on the sense of God’s presence that delivers us from fear. Today we turn to our dependence on God’s power…
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2018: Year of God’s Presence
Fear not, for I am with you Isaiah 41:10 Over the next several weeks as we start 2018 I plan to look at God’s special role for us as leaders. Often we become so focused on what we must do to succeed that we forget what He does through us so we can succeed. Many times we become so gripped by the fear of failure or anger over our inferiority that we lose confidence and become discouraged. So at the beginning of 2018 our aim is to transform our fear into freedom, our inferiority into confidence, and our emptiness into God’s fullness for us as leaders. Today’s blog…
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From The Hardest Year To The New Year
. . . fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous hand. –Isaiah 41:10 At the beginning of 2017 I faced the hardest year of my life after a fall and severe brain injury that required 80 days of hospitalization and several months of rehabilitation. I am now recovered and entering one of the most challenging years of my life. I have gone from near death to greater life than ever. God is proving himself to be my strength, my help, my support as…
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The Care of Christmas
Behold your God Isaiah 40:9 Christmas is one of God’s most precious seasons, the time when He may celebrate the most. It’s hard to think of God celebrating at Christmas, the season of one of His greatest sacrifices. Easter is when He gave His most painful sacrifice, of course, but to accomplish Easter He had to send His Son to earth at Christmas, and all three of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, knew exactly what this would mean. He can celebrate Christmas though because that’s what makes His passion for people possible in the first place. This is why He wants us to rise up, speak…
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The Celebration of Christmas
The Word of our God will stand forever Isaiah 40:8 Christmas is a beautiful season of glorious trees, bright lights, rich music, wonderful concerts, glorious celebration—yes, Christmas is a beautiful season. But not in July. In July Christmas would be strange, weird, crazy, a leftover that should have been put away and now needs to be thrown away. The decorations are out of place, faded, and finished in the summer heat. Who wants Christmas on the Fourth of July? Christmas is like life: alive, energetic, colorful, beautiful until, as Isaiah the prophet said, “the breath of the Lord blows on it.” Then the flower fades and…
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The Cry of Christmas
Prepare the way of the LORD, make straight . . . a highway for our God The world is in a turmoil we have never known. We hear it in the cry of a generation that faces struggles in ways no generation before them has. They face wildernesses brought on by war, deserts caused by the destruction of death across much of the globe, deep valleys of despair and discouragement, and rough moments in life no one can escape. What hope can we offer the world in our times? The hope of Isaiah the Prophet when he spoke of the wonder of Christmas (Isaiah 40:3-5) through the…
