Perhaps when you were a small child, your mother told you not to take a cookie from the cookie jar, but you couldn’t resist the smell of those freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, and you took one. Then there was that little voice inside that told you you’d done wrong. Perhaps it may have been… Continue reading A CLEAR CONSCIENCE
Category: Insights for Preaching
WHEN GOD SAYS WAIT!
Two years ago, we listed our home for sale. We have prayed that God would help us sell the condo. So far, we have not had one offer to purchase our home despite lowering the listing price considerably. For some reason, God has delayed answering our prayer. We are waiting. I have a number of… Continue reading WHEN GOD SAYS WAIT!
WRONGED!
Have you ever been wronged? Have you been blamed for someone else’s actions? Have you ever been treated unfairly? I have. I’ve had people spread rumors about me and what was said hurt. And I’ve seen other people wronged by the actions and words of others. In the Old Testament, Abram’s servant, Hagar, was wronged.… Continue reading WRONGED!
REDISCOVERING LAY MINISTRY – 2
While I was a missionary serving in Hong Kong, a Chinese pastor told an insightful parable that illustrated a powerful truth. An old man who was almost blind, was walking down a road when a strange thing happened – his nose and his eyes had a conversation. The nose was very critical of the eyes,… Continue reading REDISCOVERING LAY MINISTRY – 2
REDISCOVERING LAY MINISTRY – 1
Tom Landry, the legendary coach of the Dallas Cowboys and a committed Christian, once compared the church to the crowd at a football game. He said there were 22 exhausted people on the field in need of rest, while 80,000 people sat in the stands needing some exercise. He claimed that in the church, a… Continue reading REDISCOVERING LAY MINISTRY – 1
RESOLVING CHURCH CONFLICT
During nearly 50 years of ministry, I have been called to pastor churches that had experienced major conflict prior to my appointment as pastor. I was asked to lead these congregations through the process of healing. I’ve learned a lot. If you’ve been around church for a while, you’ve probably seen conflict emerge, often with… Continue reading RESOLVING CHURCH CONFLICT
UNFAIRNESS
The story ran in the New York Daily News under the headline: “Think You Got it Bad? Meet Luckless Larry.” Larry is a man who has reason to think life is unfair. A news article said, “Jolted, jilted, hammered in a car crash and robbed, Lawrence Hanratty was named the unluckiest man in New York.… Continue reading UNFAIRNESS
THE SEARCH FOR FORGIVENESS
A woman sat in my office and told me her tragic story. She had had an abortion. Though it had happened years earlier, she was still plagued by feelings of regret and remorse. She lived with convicting guilt. She couldn’t get rid of the feeling that she had done something terribly wrong. Guilt dominated her… Continue reading THE SEARCH FOR FORGIVENESS
FACING THE UNKNOWN
Who knows what a day or a year will bring? Think back over the past 12 months. Many things happened that you had no idea would occur when the year began. Life happens. You never know what a day will bring. If we knew what would happen to the stock market during the next year,… Continue reading FACING THE UNKNOWN
HOW DO YOU SEE JESUS’ RESURRECTION?
There’s a big difference between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. On Friday, you see hatred, anger and belligerence; on Sunday, you see love, glory and victory. On Friday, you see what sinful men think of Jesus; on Sunday, you see what God thinks of Jesus. On Easter, we rejoice in the words of the angel:… Continue reading HOW DO YOU SEE JESUS’ RESURRECTION?