This sermon was preached on November 3-5th at Northland, A Church Distributed, in Longwood Florida. The link includes the whole worship service which I hope you will find uplifting. The sermon starts at the 39 minute mark. Being a Person of Hospitality We have lost something in our culture. It is the practice of valuing …
Category: Christian Living
“Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be” by Cornelius Plantinga
Make no mistake, this is a book about sin. It is about the hideous nature of sin, the way it corrupts, destroys, and slowly sucks the life out of people. It is not the kind of thing most people want to talk about these days. Sin has been replaced with "dysfunction", "addiction", "syndrome" and a …
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Three MUST HAVE Relationships in Your Life (pt. 1 of 3)
John Maxwell wrote the book 360 Degree Leadership. The title is from the idea that in any organization you can and should provide leadership to those above you, below you, and around you on the org chart. We need to think of 360 degree relationships as followers of Christ. I see a model for this …
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Killing Me Softly
The cultural quest for comfort and convenience is killing American Christianity. Following Jesus is not something done from the ease of a lazy boy chair, with television clicker in hand, waiting for the microwave to ding. Following Jesus is not a walk in the park with butterflies fluttering and sunshine beaming. Jesus made it clear …
Things God Hates
Recently a friend told me of a conversation he had about God. When the person found out that he followed Jesus she told him she had a list of questions for God. One of them was, "why does God hate Halloween?" My first thought was "wow, I didn't see that coming". My next thought was, …
Trapped in a Suburban Twilight Zone
"As a Christian there is stuff I know we should be doing, and really want to be doing, but in our lives right now there just isn't enough time." Does that sound like something you have said? If you haven't said it, is it at least how you have felt, yet you never dared speak …
Why I Bonsai
People often ask me about my hobby of doing Bonsai. What got you interested? Why do you do it? There are a couple of reasons that all merged together one day several years ago. First of all there is the plane fact that Bonsai trees are flat-out amazing. When you see a three-foot tall pine …
Alabama Governor Says, “You’re Not My Brother”
Alabama Governor, Robert Bentley has people in an outrage over comments he recently made at a church where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was once pastor. Politics Daily is reporting that Bentley was making the point that as Governor he is color blind and serves all the people of the state equally. But he went …
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Why Being Thankful Just Doesn’t Cut It.
I know that this week is all about being thankful. I know that the Bible is clear that we are to give thanks in all things. I wrote a blog on that very topic sometime back. Give Thanks in All Things. In spite of that I have to admit that I am having second thoughts …
Blessed are Those Who Hunger and Thirst
What do you long for, yearn for, lay awake at night dreaming about? What do you hunger for? Much of what we yearn and hunger for never becomes reality. When I was a kid I desperately wanted to go to the moon. I could have told you everything about the space program, including every man …
Provocative Bible Verses: Being The Biggest Loser for Jesus
There is a television program called "The Biggest Loser". The premise of the show is a group of extremely overweight people compete to see which one of them will loose the most weight over the course of several weeks. It may be the only time in western culture in which the winner is actually the …
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I Went to Jail Last Night
There is a certain sense in which I am glad that most people I know have never been inside a jail. After all, people usually end up there because they have done something that in hind sight they really wish they had never even considered doing. It usually means someone was hurt in some way …
You’re Already Dead if You are Following Jesus
One of my favorite books of all time is Band of Brothers written by Stephen Ambrose. It was turned into an award-winning mini-series on HBO. The story followers Easy Company of the 506th Battalion of the 101st Airborne division from their time in training in Georgia, to D-Day in Normandy, all the way to the …
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Learning to Live as a Minority
Two weeks ago I was at a conference in Nairobi, Kenya. There were over 300 people there for the African Forum on Religion and Government. Now you may be wondering what in the world I was doing there. I suspect that some people at the conference wondered that as well. I was invited because the …
Provocative Contentment: Would Jesus Wear a Rolex on His TV Show?
Woke up this mornin’ turned on my TV set There in livin’ color was something’ I can’t forget This man was preachin’ at me, yeah, layin’ on the charm Asking me for 20 with 10,000 on his arm He wore designer clothing and a big smile on his face Selling me salvation while they sang …
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The Provocative Christian 