If you are a believer in Jesus, you have a call of God on your life. This call has two dimensions—identity and mission. You are first called to be somebody—to fully identify as a son or daughter of the Father, just like Jesus. Operating from that relational identity in turn…
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I’m told that there are more than 365 “fear-nots” in the Bible – at least one for every day of the year, so that tells me God knows that we are all going to experience, fear, anxiety, and worry at some time in our lives. And the Bible is filled…
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We sing at churches of Jesus’ matchless love, and rightly so, but do we understand how differently he loves? For example: does he ever show any sign that he wants to be liked? I raise that question advisedly, for there’s a difference between loving a person and liking him. Liking…
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Most of us live under the illusion of invulnerability, particularly when we’re young—particularly, too, I think, when we’re male. Men enjoy the illusion of controlling their own destiny. We determine our own fate (or perceive we’re doing so) by acting and taking things into our own hands. We feel we’ve…
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Apologetics comes from the Greek word apologia. Always be prepared to give an apologia, a reason for the hope that is within you. When Peter saw the confusion at Pentecost, he explained, “This is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel.” He brought evidence to bear and gave an explanation. …
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It was late May in Jerusalem and it was hot, especially where we were standing at 4:00 p.m. on old Mount Zion. The streets were filled with people, both inside the walls of the old city and outside the walls in the new city, and bustling with tour buses and…
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As you work your way through the hundreds of mentions of the word heaven in the Bible, you soon realize there is a plurality of heavens. In fact, the Bible specifically speaks of three distinct heavens. When the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians about his visions and revelations, he…
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The framers of the Constitution knew that the freedom they offered demanded responsible citizens. At the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked an important question as he left Independence Hall on the final day of the meeting in Philadelphia. A woman asked Franklin, “Well, doctor,…
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On my most recent trip to Africa I was attacked by the most vicious animal on the continent. It wasn’t a rhino or an elephant or a cobra (all of which are still on my bucket list)—it was a mosquito. No kidding. I’ve been traveling to Africa for the last…
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The year was 2012. My daughter and four other teenage girls in a North Texas town wanted to pursue rodeo as their high school sport of choice. We had no coaches and no funding for them. As the only parent with a background in rodeo and western sports, I was…
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