Part of my self-survival training in New York City during my high school years was getting a job. I don't remember any of the other guys on the block doing that but I knew it was important for me. I had several. One was walking polo ponies at a local indoor arena off Park Ave. (That's a story in itself). Two others were as a delivery boy for a drug store and a luggage shop. In those my deliveries involved customers who lived in exclusive high rises on Park and 5th Avenues. I learned very…

“The world is unprincipled. It's dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn't fight fair. But we don't live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren't for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped…

“Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning (Lk.12:35)”

If you really think about it the longest trail in the world is between hearts. We can take a plane and in one day be in Asia. We can go by car and reach the West Coast in a comfortable five days. We can ‘Skype’ on the computer and in a matter of seconds see and communicate with people around the globe. Physical distance is no longer a barrier. But there is a distance that seems to be getting longer, more challenging…

In cross country skiing you have a forerunner, that is, someone who blazes a trail through new snow to make way for the next skiers. If you are a group of people you each take a turn blazing the trail since new snow takes more effort and energy. Each one may take a few hundred yards then the next does the same and so on. Each skier helps the one behind. They all know where they are headed and what has to be done along the way.

When the Blue Ridge Parkway was built in the 1930’s in…

Matt.12:6 Jesus said, “But I say unto you, that in this place is one greater than the temple (KJV).”

Which is really greater? Is it the building, the people, the leaders, the institutional forms and rules under which they operate, or the One for whom the building, the institution and the people exist? Another way of putting it, are the forms more important than the substance? Are the structures superior to the One who initiated them? ““The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the…

Recently I stopped at our local drug store to get a flu shot. Apparently the older you are the more vulnerable you are to flu viruses due to the longer it takes to heal and the decrease of strength in the immune system. Now that is what I've been told by the experts so I follow their advice. Anyway it is a yearly discipline that I believe is true. I trust the experts and therefore faithfully submit to the needle. Bear with me on what may seem a rather mundane annual event.

But now…

This is a very good example of a "God-incidence." (similar to what many 

people call a "co-incidence"). I'm sending this to those who truly 

appreciate the difference between the two terms.

 

If you take the time to read it, you will be glad you did.

 

The SPARROW at STARBUCKS - The song that silenced the cappuccino 

machine.

 

It was chilly in Manhattan but warm inside the Starbucks shop on 51st 

Street and Broadway, just a…

A few years back while we were in Colorado skiing we went out for dinner at a typical ski resort restaurant with its wooden tables, crowded bar, TV’s blaring, loud laughter and the latest slope war stories. We looked at our menus and I noticed they had an item called jerk chicken. When the waitress came over to take our order I told her with a tongue in cheek smile that while I wanted the chicken dinner, I certainly didn't want a chicken that was a jerk. She immediately and humorously…

By now it has to be apparent that the Word, Holy Scripture, the Bible, is the focalizing 20/20 for seeing God and eternity while we are living in this world's hazy atmosphere. The Bible is the foglamp that clarifies our path and the steps to remain on it. As Paul says, “Now we see through a glass darkly...we know in part...(1Cor.13:12).” 'See' and 'know' are the operative words here. The Bible gives us spiritual vision and heart knowledge both of which are personal and just as real if not…

For This Reason 48

California TV Station Fox 5 gave this report yesterday 11/21/13:

“Costco has apparently had a “Come-to-Jesus” epiphany.

The national warehouse chain has apologized for labeling Bibles in a Simi Valley, Calif. store as fiction, calling it an error that they are working quickly to correct.

“We…

Some of us remember the days of the Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog. Every possible material thing you could want was in those pages. That catalog was an event everyone waited for. It was the great wish book. It was loaded with pictures of people, machinery, tools, musical instruments, clothes and all kinds of other things. Everything in it was mail order only and the cost included shipping even for returned goods. Every house had one. Building one's life and kingdom became the acquisition…

Beginning with Gen.1:2 the Old Testament is filled with mention of the Spirit moving among the people of Israel. In prophecy we have Joel 2:28-29, Ezek.39:29 and Zech.4:6 as examples of the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit. As we have already mentioned Jesus' personalization of the Spirit in the Gospel of John, we see Him revealed in a dramatic visual and verbal flash among the gathered disciples at Pentecost. With what sounded like a mighty wind and looked like tongues of fire…

For This Reason 45

Now that we know the Holy Spirit is our personal trainer let's look at the program He works through to mature our spirituality. Remember, it started with our spiritual birth in Jesus, having a relationship with Him and being given the Scripture as His written authority. In Scripture we find three maturing practices to build spiritual insight and stamina: prayer, spiritual gifts and being united to the Body of Christ. They are the framework containing our spiritual…

For This Reason 44

The big deal today, if you can afford it, is to have a 'personal trainer.' That is, someone who assesses your physical condition and sets you on a program toward fitness. The trainer takes your measurements, asks about your diet, the hours you sleep and what your daily routine is. He then determines your muscle strength and stamina by giving you some simple body exercises. After this the trainer draws up a program based on your condition. The rest depends on your…

The most unnerving sight for me when I watch the Olympics is the female gymnasts who tackle the balance beam. When I see it I find myself wincing at every move fearing that one of these tiny figures may miss by a sliver of an inch, fall and be severely injured. The months and even years of training that go into doing acrobatics on this narrow hard wooden structure raised several feet above the floor requires devotion, persistence and discipline, the road to athletic maturity. And this for…

For This Reason 42

Ultimately everything seen and unseen has spiritual significance. The road, the way, the truth about reality is that nothing exists outside of the spiritual dimension. The expansive universe in which we find ourselves is an expression of the mind of God at work. From the most distant edge, if in fact there is an edge, down to the most minute part of the cells of our bodies, if in fact there is a most minute part, all find their origin in the spiritual realm wherein…

Now we want to begin the quest for spiritual maturity. This is a search for real treasure, eternal treasure. But we have to start with a willingness to want spiritual awareness and sensitivity, to accept entrance into the spiritual dimension. The spiritual dimension is where the physical universe began so we have to accept the basic premise upon which we came into being. That is, we are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Why we…

We've gone to great length to shift our gaze about heart maturity from what man thinks to what the Lord Jesus thinks. What man seems to assume is that if all of us can simply have an ideal of what a mature heart is like then we can work, strive and attain that ideal. It's our desire, our intention to set our mind on being good and right that counts. This is where ideals fall apart. There's no example, no ultimate standard, just a 'pie in the sky' hit and miss goal. We have to face the fact…

When we talk about a mature heart we have two perspectives to define it. One is from our human desire for it and the other is the spiritual source that defines and offers it. Let's start with with the human one first.

The heart---your heart, my heart---it has such deep meaning for all of us. We are full of expressions like “I can feel in my heart...” “A heart full of love” “In my heart of hearts...” “I know in my heart...” and we can deal with anything if we just “get to the heart of…

Since we opened the door to the idea of maturity the questions have arisen about the specifics. That’s where we are now headed. If we consider the biblical view of what we are as images of God then we want to know three things, the maturity of the mind, the maturity of the heart and the maturity of the spirit. Jesus initiates this when He says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul [spirit] and with all your mind (Mt.22:37).” At another point when Jesus foretells…