I want to disciple someone, where do I start? If you are asking that question, good! Discipling others requires desire. It’s going to be rewarding, but it’s going to be difficult, so you have to want to disciple, and if … Continue reading Learning to make disciples from the apostle Paul, part 4
Andre and I talk about helping our children obey. Continue reading How to Make Obeying Easier
Discipleship is basically intentional biblical friendship. It’s friendship with a goal of helping the other person become more like Christ. It involves encouraging, rebuking, teaching, correcting, doing whatever it takes to help the other person actually live like Christ wants … Continue reading Playing as a team…
It’s one thing to say make disciples, it is another to make disciples. What do we do? Where do we start? We are looking at the book of 1 Thessalonians in order to learn from the apostle Paul. And the … Continue reading Learning to make disciples from the apostle Paul, part 3
Is there anything more important than knowing for sure that Jesus loves you and gave himself for you? Not only does this thought give you the hope of heaven, it enables you to live a beautiful life here on earth. As Charles Spurgeon writes, “When you have something to do for Jesus that rather tries you, when you feel disappointed and baffled, and the devil tempts you to give it all up, and run away, you will say to yourself, “How can I? He loved me, and gave Himself for me.” By Gethsemane and Calvary you will bind yourself to … Continue reading He loved me and gave himself up for me…
Be warned. Self-righteousness is a serious sin. “Everyone who seeks righteousness by works without faith denies God and wants to be known as God. Such a person thinks like this, ‘If I do this particular work, I will be conqueror over sin, death, the devil, God’s wrath and hell and obtain eternal life.’ But tell me, what else is this but to want to pry away that work that belongs to God, and that is acting like your own god.” Martin Luther Continue reading Do you want to be your own God?
The disciples are to make disciples. Being a disciple implies multiplication. Being a disciple is to become the co-worker with Christ in this great worldwide mission of helping others follow him. Or to say it another way, just so … Continue reading Learning to Make Disciples from the Apostle Paul, part 2
I love the church. And I love thinking and talking about our responsibilities as a church. Because though we look pretty ordinary, the fact is, when we talk about a church, we are talking about something that is pretty extraordinary. … Continue reading Learning to Make Disciples from the Apostle Paul
I was so encouraged by reading Christmas Evans’ prayer commitments the other day that I thought I might try and write some of my own. It’s not as easy as you might think because you want to include everything. But here are a few I quickly came up with as I thought about myself, my life and specifically future pastoral ministry. What would you add? I am not self-sufficient at all. I am needy. I will never not be dependent on someone outside myself to meet those needs. And I believe there is only person in the entire universe who … Continue reading Pastoral Commitments, 2020
I was moved by these commitments one old preacher named Christmas Evans made to God. He calls it a covenant actually, and so long as you understand covenant here with a lower case c, it works. He’s throwing himself upon … Continue reading A Dedication and Prayer
