I’ll admit it: I’ve been burned by church. I grew up with my dad serving in a church, and thusly got to see the underbelly of the beast. I heard about the fighting, the politics, and the heartache and started thinking: why do I need this? I love God, have accepted...

 Jeremiah 17:10 New International Version (NIV)10 “I the Lord search the heart    and examine the mind,to reward each person according to their conduct,    according to what their deeds deserve.” The Bible mentions the human heart almost 300 times. In essence, it is...

Clearance1 Corinthians 5:7 New International Version (NIV)7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. This time of year everything is on clearance. We have out with...

Psalms 18:2 (NKJV)  The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.  This was my memory verse for this week.  As I read it, meditated on it and wrote it over and...

 How often do you think about God’s Kingdom? How often are you aware of it, or do you see it, or do you want to? Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom was pretty radical in his time, as the Jews were hoping for a political movement or military to redeem them and...

I was leading a mission trip last spring, and I was responsible for leading the guys in the morning.  The morning after a full day of concrete is not an easy morning to wake up teenage boys up.  So I decided to just turn on the lights and do the loudest rooster crow I...

It’s just a couple of days after Valentine’s Day, and relationships are still on my mind for some reason (the heart decorations still hanging in the coffee shop I’m writing in could be part of it). I’ve recently been thinking a lot about why we engage in any sort of...