Grace is a gift most of us don't know how to receive. We've been so inundated with the earthly systems of give-and get and work-and-earn that grace is a concept few ever fully grasp. Yet it's grace alone that has the power to transform lives. Grace alone has the power to bring freedom to those in bondage [...]

There is an all out assault on truth and Biblical Truth going on in our culture today. It has become conventional wisdom in our postmodern-post Christian culture that all truth is personal and subjective. This claim that there are no absolute truths is itself an absolute truth claim of course. And it fails not just logically [...]

I read widely to find encouragement and to receive wisdom and advice from sources that consistently espouse a Biblical Christian Worldview. Once a week, I receive an email from Mark Batterson, Senior Pastor at National Community Church in Washington D.C. This week he hooked me with this title: Offend Pharisees. Then the question: Who are you [...]

The current coach of the Phoenix Suns is Monty Williams. He was recently voted NBA Coach of the Year by his peers. When he was informed of this honor, he commented: "God knocks the ball out of the park and I get to run the bases." (I love that imagery).  Williams is an out-spoken follower [...]

The Christian life is meant to be marked by simplicity. From my perspective, humankind is not as complex as we like to believe, after all, we are routinely compared in Scripture to sheep. (Click on the link below for affirmation of this truth) Jesus summed up our purpose with two statements: Love God and Love people (Mark 12:30 [...]

My family loves to camp. We always drive north to our "favorite spots." (Don't ask where though as camping has become too competitive to risk anyone else knowing our good spots.)  I will confess that we always head north and we often drive past Dingerville.  Anybody know where this is? In that same general vicinity is a [...]

Last week we were reminded by the prophet Jeremiah 2:13 that my people have committed two evils: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. They have hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. The broken cisterns are idols made by man. They can not hold water, (which is their defined purpose) and therefore they cannot [...]

We have been chatting the last couple of weeks about whom we will serve? To whom will we commit our time and talents and treasures? The truth about idols. God says clearly in His Word, (Exodus 20:3),  that we, (His special creation) shall have no other gods before Him. In Jeremiah 2:13 the prophet comments that "My people have [...]

Who will you serve? Who or what takes precedence in your life? Last week we introduced Hiroo Onoda and applauded his commitment to duty during the second World War, but acknowledged that his service was gravely misplaced. We also considered the life of Joshua and unpacked his declaration of service to the God of heaven found in Joshua [...]

Who will you serve? Placing God above all else is the only way to rid ourselves of idolatry. Hiroo Onoda was an Imperial Japanese Intelligence Officer ordered to the Island of Lubang in the Philippines in 1944. He was ordered to carry out reconnaissance and conduct guerrilla warfare. He was forbidden to surrender or to give [...]