Zechariah Chapter 4:6 – “not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty”
As far as I am concerned, this is the central message we need to “live” in order to survive in ministry. Not understanding the balance between our effort and His is what brings about most of our frustrations […]
The kingdom of God starts with a spiritual reality. Whether you believe in Him or not, He is present around you. He is in this world waiting for you to interact with Him, here and now. When you enter into the kingdom of God a spiritual change happens and you begin to comprehend things that were […]
Here are some thoughts from Chapter 6:
It hurts to see Him reduced to the level of employer or boss. Not only that, it just doesn’t work. If we have to compete selling just another religion, then we are going to lose.
As religions go,
Mormonism is much more attractive, if you like legalism and predictability.
Islam […]
It is not possible to over emphasize the centrality of love in the Kingdom of God. The only thing that rivals the centrality of love is the centrality of truth. In our evangelical tradition truth has been emphasized more often than love with the sad result that we tend to become highly qualified Pharisees. We […]
Recently Shell and I were down in Guadalajara doing a conference at a cutting edge church there. The conference was on training the church to recognize communication from God and how to share it effectively. I was ready to teach Sunday morning but I knew I had a prophetic word for the church. I thought […]
This is the scariest part of discovering the truth about ourselves. If you haven’t got to read the first two posts or listen to the sermon online – try it – I guarantee you will get a few laughs. This is the last installment before I move onto another topic – hopefully a bit lighter […]
Do you ever doubt your influence? I am talking about your good influence. I never doubt my bad influence. I think all of us wonder from time to time just how much good we are actually doing for God. Last Tuesday I was asking myself that question. It always seems to me that I could […]
Did I get your attention last week with my statements about Christians and truth? See post here if you missed it. It has the sermon link too.
Truth = change and change = increased responsibility.
I am thinking of the story of Jesus and the man at the pool of Bethesda. A crippled man has been an invalid […]
Let’s be honest, most of us aren’t.We all like to think of ourselves as basically honest people. We believe this because most of the time we don’t leave the house in the morning intending to lie our way through the day. Strangely, neither do we leave the house consciously intending to tell whole truth and […]
At the last evening of our book discussion group, I led a Scripture meditation of the paralytic being lowered down through the roof to Jesus. Scripture meditation is patiently thinking about the Scripture passage in light of God’s Holy Spirit. Our part is slowing down and listening.
Richard Foster (author of many books including Celebration of […]
The following is a testimony from someone that read my book and spent some time with Shell and I.
When I first met this woman several weeks ago, she described herself as a “black and white” person who wanted to go beyond that mode of thinking. She was hoping the book would help. She had hard hitting […]
The answer depends on what they are angry about.
For many years I was very angry with the church I grew up in. My anger was such that it was keeping me from God. I actually hated Christians. My issue was hypocrisy. My mistake was confusing God with His people. People are almost perfect hypocrites. We […]
I grew up under religion. It almost ended any chance of finding God. Religion is a treadmill of performance with ever increasing speed and inclination. My journey toward God was one of stepping off of the treadmill – no easy task. When I finally discovered that God wanted a relationship with me more than simply […]
1 Corinthians 5:11 But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. Don’t even eat with such a person. (see full chapter below from biblegateway.com)
This passage must […]
I just got this email and it provoked some thoughts about pride. They wrote:
Mark,
Your messages have been amazing! It was so quiet on Sunday as you were speaking, so I know the words you were speaking were going straight to people’s hearts, including mine.
Your description of the sins we commit just being surface symptoms of […]
In response to questions about gossip:
Gossip is any statement however made that would tend to depreciate the reputation of the person being the subject of the statement. The fact that the statement is true is not a defense to gossip. The fact that the statement is made with a request for prayer for the person […]
ATTRACTING GOD’S BLESSING – GUARANTEED!
We have been teaching a sermon series on blessing and focusing on being a blessing. We have defined being a blessing as “passing on to others the blessings of God.” But before we pass them on we have to receive them. So how do we “attract” the blessings of God? I […]