Recover Your Life Without Losing Your Ministry
Recently, I was at an early morning gathering of brothers who are trying to live out what we say we believe. The topic of conversation was “control” and how we (as men especially) struggle with control in our lives. I discovered that when I think I’m out of control, God seems to be [Read more...]
Have you ever noticed that those who help you the most in life are those who never really intend to help you? In fact, those helpful souls are rarely even aware of their helpfulness to you even when they are in the very act of helping. I find that to be interesting and relevant to being a ministry leader or leader in general. If you have [Read more...]
We who are “servant-hearted” leaders have a hard time saying “no” to demands of others. We truly want to help and know that God has gifted us to help others. Yet, we wind up unintentionally over-committing ourselves [Read more...]
Love is the most difficult word to define in the English language. Mostly because it has almost as many different meanings as there are people who use the word. [Read more...]
Once upon a time an eagle’s egg rolled out of a hole in the nest. It rolled gently down the mountain trail arriving safely in the farmyard below. As it turned out a hen passing by saw it and assuming it was a chicken egg, rolled it to her nest where she proceeded to hatch it. [Read more...]
Have you ever noticed the wind blowing through the trees or the waves lapping up on a sandy shoreline? There is a rhythm about them that is natural and calming to the soul. The rhythm is something organic, not contrived by man. It is unforced. The natural, calming, unforced rhythm of blowing wind and [Read more...]
On Wednesday, May 11, 2011 my little car (a 1993 Toyota Tercel, pictured at left) threw a rod and blew an engine. Now I know that some would be embarrassed to drive a vehicle as old as the Tercel, with it’s [Read more...]
“Be still and know that I am God…” Psalm 46:10a (NIV)
As often as money and time will allow, Melissa and I will head to the Great Smokey Mountains for a weekend get-a-way. We usually stay at our favorite resort in a cabin with a peaceful porch and relaxing hot tub. Recently, as we were on one of these get-a-ways, I was [Read more...]
Proverbs 1:7(ESV) “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
Is it possible that we who instruct become fools too often because we are approached so much for the answers and we actually believe that we have all of them? When we get to a point in our ministry or spiritual life that we begin to believe the “myth” that we are the guru of sorts in our sphere of influence, we are at the end of knowledge or the beginning of foolishness. [Read more...]
Emotional survival is the single biggest issue facing most pastors today. Sadly the reality is that most seminaries and Bible colleges can not prepare you for the real world pressures that one encounters in the life of most churches. Demands and expectation, both real and imagined, and the harsh reality that a fallen world does not yield to your best ideals, training, or good [Read more...]