What can we do with the example Jesus has set before us regarding life? Was the level of commitment it took to accomplish His assignment greater than the one I will need in order to succeed? It cost Him everything to purchase humanity by ransom. My service will also cost my life. The next step, though, is that I gain an abundance of life that I can’t measure. Sign the […]
Category Archives: Discipleship
Fearing Hell is Poor Motivation
Contemporary Roman Mythology has influenced many generations directly and through the daughters of the church of Rome with great fear of hell. Even after being born of Yahweh, victims continue to fear the lake of fire up to their last breath. Popes created the fear factor to keep their subjects dependent on them for salvation. You need one of their priests to protect you from damnation (myth). The subsequent motivations […]
Leading Leaders
Everyone can probably help someone along the way who is younger or less informed or lost. Not everyone is a leader, though. Not every leader is a good leader, either. The best leaders are not the ones with the most followers. The best ones are the ones who have equipped the most leaders. If you are a leader, and you are not intentionally finding lives to leave your thumbprint on, […]
Treated Like Servants
We are servants of the King of Heaven and Earth. Religion typically teaches that a minister is in charge, but minister is a foreign word for servant. On good days, we can step into the place of being a servant. We can even enjoy serving Jesus by serving the least of His people at times. A good test of our maturity in humility is how we respond to being treated […]
Today’s New Grace
The grace of God that we have needed in our sin and our deadness was grace of His sacrifice. After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them: “Brothers, you are aware that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the gospel message and believe. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them by […]
Grace and Peace and Knowledge
May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. For His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.(2 Peter 1:2-3 HCSB ©®)
Sleep and Comfort
Effective leaders offer discouraged people strength, not comfort. Most people want comfort, not strength. Believers in China or Cuba or Iraq or Sudan today need strength more than comfort. They need both, but if they have to choose, they clearly need strength. We are no less at war, but our war is less visible and our culture offers the pretense of being able to hide from the war. It is […]
Working Ears and Eyes
A great daily prayer might be, “Lord, give me ears that hear and eyes that see and a heart that listens and obeys!” As a large crowd was gathering, and people were flocking to Him from every town, He said in a parable: “A sower went out to sow his seed. As he was sowing, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the sky […]
The King’s Breath
Father, please cause Your Kingdom to come here, by causing Your will to be done here just as it is done in Heaven. By instruction from Jesus, that is part of the disciples’ prayer. The launch of the mission to help that prayer be answered was the choosing of 12 initial apostles to colonize the earth with the power, the culture, and thereby, the Kingdom of Heaven. Apostles created colonies […]
Being Taught
Holy Spirit wants to teach you all things. He is capable of being your only Teacher. That is not His usual method, though. In the past, He has used many means to transmit information, explanation, and direction. Angels, dreams, angels in dreams, animals, insects, teachers, prophets, evangelists, seasons, friends, enemies, demons, Scriptures, apocryphal Scriptures, creative imaginations, stars, planets, rivers, oceans, mountains, successes, mistakes, famines, abundance, thieves, parents, children, governors, warriors, […]