Category: Interior Life

weekly words of encouragement

God Is Our Fortress – Weekly Words Of Encouragement

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“The Lord is a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.” Psalms 9:9 (NLT) In this world we will have troubles (John 16:33), but the promise is that God is our fortress in these times. What kind of fortress is God? He created the universe with billions of galaxies and trillions of stars. If he is our castle, our defense, when trouble or oppression comes, then who or what can break through that defense? Nothing. It is true that God allows suffering in this age of his inaugurated kingdom; he allows this for our Christformation and to shine his goodness to others. We must share in the sufferings of Christ. Yet in all these things, God is our fortress, and he still preserves our soul. “But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil [one]” (2 Thess. 3:3, NIV). He Continue Reading →

pitfall mud fall soldier

The Four Biggest Pitfalls Of Leadership (And Followship)

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Many years ago I was attending a really good church where the Holy Spirit was present and the people were genuinely seeking God. I was especially thankful because my previous church had just collapsed due to some unresolved issues between the pastor and the elders. Everything was going well at this new church, then one day I received a stunning message. The senior pastor had just left his wife and run off with the attractive worship leader, who left her husband to run off with the pastor.  The two of them had been spending a considerable amount of time together in ministry, and staff members expressed concern, but the pastor did not respond. This illustrates one of the big pitfalls of leadership. Over the years I have observed first-hand pastors and other leaders who fall into moral failure or severely restrict their effectiveness because of four different issues. Maybe there Continue Reading →

humility

The Deep Humility Of William Seymour

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In 1906 something very unusual began happening in a small meeting in Los Angeles. People testified that the Spirit of God was coming upon them and filling them with joy and power and praise for God. Their lives were transformed. It was the beginning of the Azusa Street Revival, which was the leading contributor to the biggest movement in the Christian church in centuries: Pentecostalism. It was also the second largest social movement of the 20th century after communism, and unlike communism, it was still skyrocketing by the end of the century. In the year 2000 over 500 million Christians worldwide considered themselves Pentecostal or charismatic. Yet, Azusa was led by someone possessing deep humility. The pastor of the church that hosted these meetings on Azusa Street was an African-American man named William Seymour. The meetings were filled with whites as well as blacks and many other nationalities. As news Continue Reading →

searching God distant sky night telescope

If God Seems Distant, It’s An Opportunity!

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God is very big on faith. It is the way we connect with him, and it is even the way we are saved. In human relationships faith, or trust, is a precious commodity as well. We might love someone with all our hearts but still not trust them because we deem them untrustworthy. A mother may be willing to die for her wayward adult son, but not trust him enough to let him live with her because of his destructiveness. God is not destructive, but he is mysterious and challenging, and trusting him takes time. If God seems distant it is even more challenging. This is why he goes to great lengths to develop faith in us. After we have been following Jesus for several years, God will typically take away our sense of his presence in order that we might learn deeper faith. He does this because he loves Continue Reading →

disciple saint francis

What Does a Maturing Disciple of Jesus Look Like?

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We agree that the mission of the church, and the mission of God in our lives, is to make (beautiful) disciples of Jesus. We also agree that discipling is a maturation process; believers are supposed to “become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).[2] Another way of saying this is that we are partnering with God to help people follow Jesus and join his mission. All our doctrines, practices, and congregational lives are anchored in these ideas. Renew.org recently published my article on this topic. You can read the full article here. Below is part of the article. But in order to pursue this discipling process, do we not need to know what a maturing disciple of Jesus looks like? How do we know if we are traveling on the road of maturity unless we know what the road looks like? In other words, Continue Reading →