Early in my faith walk the last thing I wanted to do was say the word JESUS to anyone. I figured you could get away with talking about GOD…but, Jesus, no way. This misguided line of thinking emanated from my spiritual immaturity. I had no relationship with Christ and was not even vaguely familiar with the Word of God. No wonder I didn’t want to say the word Jesus—I didn’t know him.    What...

Yes, you’re going to heaven if you believe that Christ has taken away your sins, and then receive Him into your heart and life. That’s the promise God has for us. “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12 But there’s more to the story—God wants us to grow up! I know from first-hand experience early in my faith walk that it...

Early in my faith walk I used to think that keeping the “right things” in my mind would chase the negative voices away. I thought it was possible ON MY OWN. I was wrong. Really wrong. Looking back on it now, it’s clear that I was trying to make up for the multitude of “un-Christian” thoughts racing around my head and deal with the guilt they produced.    I had no time for parades or zoos...

Our Initiative Will NEVER Be Enough! Receiving and responding to God’s direction for our faith walk—from the small decisions to the life-changing choices–takes INITIATIVE, of course. But it takes more than that…much more—it is IMPERATIVE that we connect with God on a regular basis. Missing that step means we will be forced to find perspective and direction from somewhere else—friends, television,...

Learning this discipline took me far too long, but a new and strong rhythm has finally emerged in my walk with God because my decisions got better when I stopped making them on my own. I had no idea that God wants us to run all of our decisions through him. But he clearly does and will honor it by transforming moments, days, and even a lifetime.    I know that to be true because it happened...

Once I developed spiritual rhythm and was growing as a Christian, I started to sense God’s purpose in my life and how that would be manifest through my gifts and passions. It was great! But it turns out that this growth was just the starting point.      It wasn’t long before God started to use my spiritual momentum to teach me about another FAITH IMPERATIVE—emulating Christ is EVERY...

The pain that came with my disconnection from God’s power was much deeper than creating a darkened existence void of his power to redeem…his power to restore…his power to re-rack all the stray parts of my life. It was early in my faith walk when power from me to God became disconnected. I lost track of the cord instead of holding onto it through the darkness so I would be able to plug it back in when...

It took a long time for me to understand this lesson, but eventually I heard God’s message that growing our faith positions us to have others see Christ through who we are and what we do. It’s God’s power of MULTIPLICATION that uses our spiritual maturity to touch someone else who then can be used by him to touch others for Christ.    But we’ll miss out on those opportunities and our responsibility...

This has always been a significant challenge for me. That’s why I am constantly on the lookout for signs that my “FRETTING” is disguising opportunities to see people and situations that need my Christ-like intervention. The fretting I’m referring to in this scenario covers anything and everything that puts the focus on me and my worries, anxieties, fear, and pain. Anything and everything...

It’s true–I fought off transferring all the power to God for a couple of decades! It was a painful and untidy process to be sure, but the breakthrough finally came when I realized either we give God ALL the power or we give him NONE.    Transferring power in business and government is messy at minimum and outright mayhem on the pole’s other end. Superstar athletes at the end of their...