As a father of three children, I want my kids to do what is right. I want them to honor and obey their mother, my wife, when she tells them to do something. I want them to respect their teachers. I want them to obey God. But it is much more than that. I don’t just want them to...

This week, we wrap up the Book of Acts and study the culmination of Paul’s journey to Rome. The shipwreck along the way garners most of the attention of these final chapters, and rightfully so, but I want us to turn our attention to the last two verses of the book. 30 Paul stayed two whole years in his...

Sometimes how something is done is just as important, or even more important, than what is done. Take baking for example. I am not an expert baker by any stretch of the imagination, but I dabble with baking and can do OK. One of the things that I have learned is that sometimes the baker’s technique can make all...

I have never been a farmer or a soldier. I imagine I am not alone. Because of this, when the Bible uses these as metaphors for living in faith, I can understand them, but only to a point. I can understand them conceptually, but not experientially. But when Paul talks about an athlete training or running a race—now, that’s...

We love to find ways to separate ourselves as people. We are so good at finding reasons, almost all of which are pretty poor and many even sinful, to divide ourselves. We relish an “us against them” posture, one which is manifested in countless forms of “us” and “them.” Let’s be clear: none of this is biblical, in fact...

We have a nagging tendency to equate “good” with “easy” and “bad” with “difficult.” If something is easy and comfortable, we see it as good. But if something is difficult and uncomfortable, we see it as bad. Seeing Good and Bad More Clearly While there are times when easy is indeed good and difficult is indeed bad, there are...