Stoking a Holy Fire Within
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 Posted in Fellowship, Growth | No Comments »How do you put out a campfire? You kick the sticks, the logs, and the embers to spread them out. How do you stoke a fire? You pile up and push together the sticks, the logs, and the embers. Remove one of ...
Exercising Faith
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 Posted in Growth | No Comments »There seems to be only one way to build stronger muscles, and that's by exercising them, which means pushing them beyond the point where they start complaining to us. It's not fun! It seems to me that exercising faith presents us ...
Addicted to the Spectacular
Monday, April 21st, 2008 Posted in Growth, Spirituality | No Comments »J. I. Packer references something fellow author Dallas Willard wrote with the theme of being "addicted to the spectacular." I found the phrase intriguing -- "being addicted to the spectacular." Earlier Packer refers to it as "lusting after the spectacular." We ...
Continuing Our Conversion
Saturday, April 19th, 2008 Posted in Growth, Spirituality | No Comments »"Conversion is a process" writes Kathleen Norris in her book Amazing Grace: a Vocabulary of Faith. It's a good reminder for all of us. Frequently we think of conversion to Christ as an event. There's that moment when a person ...
Delayed Gratification of a Divine Order
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 Posted in A Sense of Call, Growth | 1 Comment »I'm writing this on Wednesday morning because I'll be in surgery for the removal of my gall bladder this afternoon (1:30). I appreciate your prayers! It's rather strange preparing for surgery and hospitalization (hopefully, just one night) when I feel perfectly ...
“I Knew That!”
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 Posted in Growth, Spirituality | No Comments »I was struck by something the apostle Paul wrote to the young preacher Timothy. "Keep reminding them of these things." (2 Timothy 2:14) Young Timothy was to have a ministry of reminding! If you listen regularly to me preach and teach, ...
More Input!
Saturday, April 12th, 2008 Posted in Growth | No Comments »"More input! I need more input!" The words are from the main character in a 1986 movie called Short Circuit. The main character was an endearing robot that had become conscious and self-aware. He delighted in being alive and couldn't ...
Life’s a Journey, a Spiritual Pilgrimage
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 Posted in Growth, Spirituality | 1 Comment »Many a great story has been all about a journey. Some have been movies such as Road Trip and National Lampoon's Vacation. The movie, Lord of the Rings, based on the classic book by the same title, is a story ...
SeeSaw Faith
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 Posted in Growth, Theology | No Comments »You might first think that the title of this blog entry is a negative statement, that you're braced for me writing something critical about a person's faith being a seeesaw faith. Quite the opposite! We human beings have a constant tendency ...
31 Days toward Spiritual Maturity Concludes!
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 Posted in 31 Days toward Spiritual Maturity, Growth | No Comments »With the entry below I have finished posting 31 essays on the theme of Spiritual Maturity. The idea for this series was prompted by my reading of the book Simple Church in which the authors argue for churches to have a simple plan ...
