When we REJECT any other savior BUT Jesus, REPENT of our sin and disbelief, and RECEIVE the gift of God by faith, we are RESURRECTED by the Holy Spirit to a new life we’ve never known before.
The Bible demonstrates that laws, leaders, and looming punishment are ineffective in transforming the human heart. Only love from God and for God has the power to transform us from the inside out.
The danger in ministry is loving “church” more than the Church.
We love doctrine, philosophy, programs—and we grow frustrated when people don’t “church” well.
If we’re frustrated by bad “churching,” but lack compassion for broken people, we’ve missed the heart of the Gospel.
“Our job as Christians is not to be the prosecutor of the world and of sinners. We are simply a witness, testifying of all we’ve seen and experienced of Jesus.”
Let the Holy Spirit and Holy Scriptures do their job and let’s do ours.
What gives me great hope for great commission work, especially in the West, is that we are swiftly moving from a post-Christian culture to a pre-Christian culture. The hearts of many people are blank slates unpolluted by past religious experiences.
Privileged to lead worship for my friend @matt_ehlen at Calvary Baptist in Lilburn today. Grateful for their friendship and ministry.
Faith closes the gap between the here and now and what’s to come, allowing us to praise Jesus today as we will in the end when every knee bows.
“If we attempt evangelize without being deeply formed inwardly, we have nothing to offer the lost but intellectual arguments. Deep spiritual formation inevitable leads us to serve others and share Jesus, and the truth we preach is readily affirmed by our transformed lives.”
“If you are not vigilent, ministry will become your mistress.”
“The only thing God wants out of my life is the person I become, not the work I accomplish.”
“Spiritual formation and spiritual disciplines are the means of inward growth.”
“In the North American evangelical church, we often mistakenly consider ourselves missionaries when we go overseas but theologians at home. In our book and cultural slumber, the mission field has arrived in our urban cities while churches have moved out to the quiet suburbs.”
I’m always grateful for tender moments like these that reveal God is working under the surface. Raising kids has its challenges, but I’m thankful for the privilege of instilling Gospel principles into their young hearts.
November and December are heavy planning months for me every year, personally and organizationally. I have been reminded of this simple but powerful truth:
"You never rise to the level of your potential. You fall to the level of your habits or systems."
“While the world, especially the west, turns family into strangers, the Gospel turns strangers into family. This should be the missional focus of every church in response to globalization and urbanization.”
Over the course of 35+ years as a Christian and 23+ years of ministry, I've known and watched multiple generations of pastors.
I've seen the "younger" guys become "older" pastors and watched a couple new waves of men join our ranks.
I'd like to share a few observations.
🧵...
Excellent and timely teaching series on the battle for our minds. Speaking on cynicism,
“If you never heal from what hurt you, you’ll bleed on people who didn’t cut you.”