An explosion rips through a building. There is screaming as hundreds head for exits and flee in all directions while at the same time scores of uniformed police and firemen run into the midst of the chaos. These are the first responders. However there were some who stayed to pull the injured from the wreckage before help arrived. They were more concerned with the people they saw hurting and needing immediate care. If we would, just for a moment, shift this scene into the spiritual dimension…

Jesus was the ‘First Responder’ when it came to bringing reality to man’s unreality. So we want to investigate just what it means for us to be ‘first responders’ like Him. First we need to realize He has given us the equipment to be first responders. When we decided to let Him be the One who runs our life He bonded us to Him by His Holy Spirit. Second, we need to realize that He is always present in our hearts. In spite of our sin He is constantly working through His Spirit to keep Him as…

What it Really Means to be a Disciple

John Stott wrote this prophetic insight 17 years ago:

“As we face the end of the second millennium since Christ, the hearts of most people around us are failing them for fear. It is not the lack of natural resources which is the chief problem, however, but the lack of spiritual and moral resources. Thinking people know that the problems facing us---bewildering in their number, magnitude and complexity -- are beyond us. Only a return to the…

“The process of being human in every dimension is invisible. All of this invisibility is spiritual in that it has a moral base from which no one is exempt. Morality is a spiritual structure motivating behavior. Even atheism and agnosticism are belief systems thus making them ‘religious’ by definition and spiritual in nature. They have a form of morality and a strategy to engage their ideas. They believe in not believing or concluding they believe in not knowing. It’s bad to believe and good…

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ (1Cor.3:11).)

I still maintain that the real issues in any culture are spiritual which means they can’t be dealt with politically and for the most part are treated superficially by the populace. Yet it is the spirituality of a people that determines their attitudes, their choices and their behavior. And it is spiritual issues that determine how any group of people chooses their leadership, their…

“Blessed is the Nation Whose God is the Lord (Ps.33:12).”

“…the people He chose for His inheritance.”

For the last several postings I have railed at what I believe to be the pre-downfall condition of our society, the collapse of what we know as America. It is not the concept of America. Rather it is the condition of the hearts of the people that dwell within its geography. Their hearts have been seduced by the promise of momentary satisfaction, instant gratification and a new…

Secularism is the hometown of sin. Secularity denies spirituality thus morality is left alone to individuality and emotionality becomes our functionality. Denial is the daily enterprise of fear and pride, the handmaidens of sin. Without a reasoned spiritual base for moral decision making, anarchy and its chaos are the final result. It’s not enough to say that people are good at heart. Heart is where the problem of sin lies. The human mind and heart have denied sin as the perpetrator of our…

Three things stand about this election. First, it revealed a clear distinction between personal faith and institutional religion. Many people believe that just because they are members of some denomination, they are ‘religiously covered.’ What they vote for has little to do with what they say they believe. An interesting report on one of the news stations indicated a majority of Roman Catholics voted politically opposite the beliefs of the leadership of their Church.

Second,…

When it’s a really cold day out and you’ve been skiing hard there is nothing like coming home to a hot bowl of beef stew. The choice cuts of meat, the mix of carrots, celery, onions in a thick tasty gravy buffered with garlic salt and pepper, the aroma filling the kitchen---that’s a memorable moment of satisfaction.

Now shift your historical gaze several thousand years ago to a similar scene,

“Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished.…

It’s God’s Timing, Not Ours

Look at the spiritual context not the world context. It’s what we are praying for in the long haul that counts. The spiritual context is much larger than our personal life on this planet. We are not limited by our political or social context. It’s about the ongoing moral and spiritual war that is being waged on a battlefield you can’t see except with spiritual eyes.

In a recent survey (the name and source eludes my memory) it was reported that if you…

Principles 8

Our Prayers Are Working

Look at the spiritual context not the world context. It’s what we are praying for in the long haul that counts. The spiritual context is much larger than our personal life on this planet. We are not limited by our political or social context. It’s about the ongoing moral and spiritual war that is being waged on a battlefield you can’t see except with spiritual eyes.

In a recent survey (the name and source eludes my memory) it was…

Principles 7

It’s ‘Now’ or Never

In the movie “Gone With the Wind” besides Rhett Butler’s “Frankly my dear,…” line, the most quoted is Scarlett O’Hara’s, “I’ll think about that tomorrow” which defined her role as the queen of obstinate procrastination. For her ‘now’ was the practice of believing she could take charge and control her destiny regardless of circumstance and, with a good night’s sleep, she would have the answer later. In the course of the movie she inherited what…

“Make the World Go Away, Take It Off of My Shoulders…”

These are the opening words to an old country song sung by Jim Reeves. Keep them in mind as you read.

When you go to the mountains in North Carolina there are always ads along the way that lure you to so-called gem mines. They are little shacks with sluice-like water troughs where you pour in buckets of dirt guaranteed to contain rubies, amethysts and other jewels in the rough. Of course you know the dirt is dug and trucked…