When a person decides to follow Jesus, their circle of influence is likely to follow.

When reading the book of Proverbs it's important that we begin be identifying ourselves as a person in need of greater wisdom. Some people may be haughty enough to identify themselves with the wise. Others might identify with the foolish, although this might be self-deprecating, as a foolish person may not be found reading the book of Proverbs at all. I think an honest appraisal of our approach would be that we should read the book of Proverbs as a student.

When Jesus was eight days old a man named Simeon prophesied that Jesus' destiny was, in part, to "reveal the thoughts of many hearts".  Jesus spent a huge portion of his ministry exposing and then challenging people's false ideas about God.

When we become aware of fragments of racial superiority in our hearts, the Biblical response is repentance. As God brings to mind biases, prejudices and fears, repent of those attitudes and cooperate with the renewing of your mind.

A meek person may still have ambition, vision, zeal, passion and goals, but a meek person is not willing to step over or crush others in pursuit of those things.

In my opinion, anyone that is intellectually honest has to give a fair inspection into the man Jesus. Regardless of religious affiliation, Jesus is the most influential man in the history of the world. Jesus is a historical figure that we all must come to our own conclusions on.

Beginning your faith journey based on emotion and circumstance does not invalidate your faith journey, but it also doesn't sustain it. Over time my faith began to develop and deepen. Eventually my belief in Jesus influenced my emotions but was ultimately founded upon external, objective, historical evidence and was supported by personal experience. 

America has yet to really see the results of a Biblically literate church.

Check back for more info on this upcoming series!

The Ten Commandments were the seminal word from God about a new culture that He was establishing among a people that were newly freed from 400 years of slavery. Instead of looking at the Ten Commandments simply as a list of rules to keep, it might be helpful to look at them as a list of cultural values.

This is my experience as a Pastor leading a congregation to embrace a new vision for the future.

Why do so few pastors take sabbaticals? There may be several reasons, but one of the most common is that a sabbatical is simply never offered by the church. Most pastors would find it inappropriate to demand a sabbatical. Further, the nature of rotating leadership in churches, coupled with other dynamics of the average church, make the provision of a sabbatical an after-thought.

The culture of a church serves like a current in a body of water. Whether people are aware of it or not, every church has its own cultural current or momentum.

The man who lead Israel out of slavery was never a slave.

Sometimes, when people feel the need to construct a flawlessly coherent theological system, they are faced with gaps in the system. Those gaps are mysterious.
 

Why are Jezebel-figures able to have influence in churches? Because it's tolerated. That's exactly how Jesus confronted the issue when it was present in Thyatira. He told them that they "tolerated" Jezebel.

Often our decision making can be influenced by things like anger, anxiety, fear or worry.  It's hard to believe that any godly choices can result from any of these emotions.  What if our decision making process was free of these negative emotions and was guided by something else? 

You don't get to decide whether you will fulfill your calling, you only get to decide whether you will enjoy it.

Jesus taught his disciples to pray as those who don't need the attention of other people, and already have the attention of God.