Well before GPS cured our directional disease, captains of the sea used a SEXTON to “shoot the stars” at dawn and dusk to identify their navigational position. In almost every case, a course correction of some kind was needed.    Christians need to a sexton, too. But our sexton is God. And, yes, we need to check it twice-a-day—once in the morning and then again as the day fades to black.    Failure...

A mentor and dear friend of mine halfway across the country just told me a story he calls “THE HARDEST DAY OF MY LIFE.” His powerful words and images stirred my emotions profoundly as I looked outside the window of my life and saw COVID-19 tanks rolling through and over everything everywhere. His story got me thinking hard about PSALM 91 and how much it resonates in “modern” 21st Century life, especially...

An insidious, white-noise HUM is racing across the globe and penetrating the souls of its inhabitants. Creating a mysterious torture chamber. Mounting an unrecognizable assault. Casting a dark force that blocks out all but a glint of God’s light. Here’s what Mr. Webster says about HUM: An unwanted, low-frequency, and continuous droning and vibrating sound.    The 21st Century HUM runs 24/7...

This just in from our global online tribe: I put in a lot of effort to grow spiritually but my faith is stagnant, especially during the COVID-19. Doesn’t God see my effort? This is a powerful question that produces a scary answer.    Effort can be an imposter; even a fraud; always a chameleon; sometimes a saboteur.    Effort does not earn points.    Yes, everything falls...

A global mindset I call the “ERADICATION OF UNCERTAINTY” just left the launch pad in an explosion of fury that has produced a manic hunt for certainty and a determined drive to eliminate ambiguity. This “Eradicate Uncertainty Movement” has become a VIRUS that seeks to influence human behavior. A virus that has produced a broken moral compass. A virus just like the uncertainty-laden COVID-19 CLOUD...

Sitting in our COVID-19 cages is “forcing” all of us to think about things that have been ignored for a long time.   It has been a welcome exercise of enlightenment for me.    This morning when God took his director chair and called out ACTION for a new day, I pounded my coffee to focus the blurry frames in my viewfinder.    That’s when the subject of FAITH & BLURRED LINES...

Over this past weekend I thought about Christians, including myself at times, who are “WHITEKNUCKLING” their way through this COVID-19 nightmare. WHITEKNUCKLING = extreme excitement, fear, apprehension, tension, or stress. Think roller coasters careening around sharp corners and airplanes shaking and bouncing in a storm of turbulence.    Gripping something so tight that our knuckles lose...

I woke up from another restless night with this thought sliding across my mind’s dance floor: Most Christians are “SHAKABLE.” (Yes, shakable is a real word that means “capable of being weakened.”) I am sure that SHAKABILITY would never have slid off my mind’s conveyer belt without the CoronaVirus challenge. That had to be the impetus forcing it down the line to visit my consciousness and challenge...

We find ourselves standing at the CROSSROADS of life–faith, family, career, relationships, ministry, health, and the rest of it–more now than ever before. The velocity of 21st Century life produces myriad choices–A or B, left or right, up or down, forward or back, fight or flight, in or out…Coke or Pepsi.    But when we rolled up on this crossroad at the COVID-19 Junction,...

We are all born LEGALISTS (keep the law to win God’s acceptance) who are vulnerable to being caught in the “Pharisee Trap.” Vulnerable to reject God’s grace. And vulnerable to the false allure of earning our way into Eternity with Jesus. The Pharisees were prolific legalists on a pedestal hovering above all others (1 Corinthians 8:1). They appeared to have it all together, but that was merely camouflage...