In: salvation
14 Apr 2009This past week I had a memorable experience that made my Easter more meaningful. A close family friend of ours is a single mom with one daughter. Through the pain and confusion of adolescence, this young daughter became pregnant. When a person, a family, goes through this valley, they can go one of two ways [...]
In: salvation
30 Mar 2009I’m praying today for some dear family friends. They are spending this day at Emory Hospital having tests done on their seven-week-old baby. After eight years of infertility issues and then a complicated pregnancy, little Regan was born. Just last Friday she was diagnosed with malignant cancer in both eyes. The doctors and parents don’t [...]
In: discipleship| salvation| theology
9 Dec 2008Each December holiday season a competitive, calculating sport plays out in homes, neighborhoods, schools, and office parties across America.
The great Christmas gift exchange.
This is the game of trading up gifts you have received.
The short version of this is played at a party, usually called “White Elephant Gifts” or “Dirty Santa”, where you must pick a [...]
In: discipleship| salvation
4 Dec 2008Two other pictures of the relationship between conversion and discipleship.
passover.
6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the [...]
In: discipleship| salvation
2 Dec 2008[continued]
What does the “cross” mean to you?
What were the first references to “cross” by Jesus?
Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me [...]
In: discipleship| salvation
24 Nov 2008I love teaching our new member’s class at church because people come from all different religious backgrounds and stages of spiritual growth.
I start the class by talking about salvation. We play a little game called I’m Dying In 15 Minutes:
I’m dying in the next few minutes - tell me what must I do, believe, feel, [...]
In: salvation
23 Jun 2008For my West Ridge friends, this is what I look like in a tie. And yes, that is New King James I am using!
My Spiritual Independence Day
In: salvation
21 Mar 2008The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” [john 12:12-13]
On the Sunday morning before the crucifixion, Jesus rode in to Jerusalem [...]
In: salvation
18 Sep 2007I was married on December 18, 1987. Today, I am married. I plan on and look forward to being married on December 18, 2037. Three different marriages? No, one marriage to the same woman, hopefully, for many years.
My future wife and I were students at the same university for several months before I knew she [...]
In: salvation
3 Mar 2007God has a redemptive story. We must understand it for ourselves, and so that we can accurately and effectively share it with those who need it. According to scripture it includes the truths:
1. Humans need salvation.
2. God wants to save.
3. God can save however he wants, [...]
For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel