The Desires of Your HeartYou can tell a lot about a person by what they desire.
Probably most of us have imbibed the ascetic notion of Buddhism that desire is the source of most human suffering. If we could just free ourselves from all desire we would find true contentment and happiness. Desire at its root is viewed in the negative- as something to be done away with.
This is not the Biblical notion of desire. View full article »
Committed to ChristTake heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which he has purchased with His own blood.” Acts 20:28
We Pastors are being killed by the professionalizing of the pastoral ministry. The mentality of the professional is not the mentality of the prophet…the more professional we long to be, the more spiritual death we will leave in our wake.” John Piper View full article »
Fear NotThe Apostle John had been banished to the Isle of Patmos- a tiny, barren island off the coast of modern Turkey.
A penal colony for political prisoners, Domitian had sentenced him to hard labor in the mines for his testimony that Jesus was Lord.
At the same time, the most vicious persecution to date was falling on the Church. It was a time of dark turmoil and tribulation. View full article »
The Resistance of SubmissionThere is something about the word “submit” that makes our flesh crawl. We hear the call to submission in the Scripture and immediately our sinful nature begins to protest and rebel.
In the N.T. the word “to submit” is a military term that carries with it the meaning “to rank oneself under.” In the word there is no connotation of inferiority of personhood, only of function. View full article »
Our Walk in PrayerSometimes we think more about what we pray for than what we pray against.
When we pray, Jesus also instructed us to pray against the schemes of the evil one. Of course, the reason we seek God’s Fatherly provision in this regard is because Satan is not an independent power that works against us, but rather he is a subsidiary power that seeks to undermine God but View full article »
Revival?The winds of revival had died in America. After gold had been discovered in California, western expansion boomed. Banking and Stocks were creating unheard of wealth.
The good times were in. Prosperity led to laxity and its twin sister apathy.
On October 12, 1857 panic on Wall Street ground the economy to a halt. View full article »
Distinguishing Prayer“To move man by God through prayer alone.”
Hudson Taylor
Today we begin to think about prayer. Prayer seems to be the common human desire to commune with God.
Even non-Christians pray. Soldiers in fox holes pray, people pray before they go into surgery or before a final exam.
Prayer is not what distinguishes us as a Christian- but how we pray does. View full article »