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One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Micah 6:8 – “He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” To walk humbly with your God. What does it mean to walk with God? In the Old Testament, the phrase is normally worded as “walking before God” (Genesis 17:1, 1Kings 2:4, 2 Kings 20:3, Psalm 56:13, 116:9). It was first used in Genesis 17 with God telling Abraham that he was to wal

I’m sure you saw the story a couple of weeks ago. If not, you have to hear about it. A man with a gun attempted to highjack a school bus in Columbia, South Carolina. The bus was filled with younger elementary students, including a lot of kindergartners. But the commander let them all go because the kids would not stop talking to him, asking him questions. “Are you going to hurt us?” “Are you going to hurt our bus driver?” “Why do you want our bus?"Instead of cowering in fear,

If you are not familiar with Helen Keller’s story, I would encourage you to read her biography. You’ll find that the real hero in her life was Anne Sullivan, a forerunner of special education and a remarkable woman who gave life to Helen and inspiration to millions in her generation. Anne was the one teacher who was able to get through to Helen’s intellect and introduce to this deaf and blind woman the powerful concepts of words and language. Helen became a household name whe

I was invited to participate in a public forum with two other pastors. Besides me, there was a liberal mainline denominational pastor, who made it clear that he did not trust the Bible, and a Catholic priest. It was quite an interesting evening, and I used my time to make the case for using the Bible as our source for understanding the human condition and our relationship with God. My goal was to clearly communicate the Gospel.One question made it easy, “How do you get to hea

Last week’s post was about determining God’s will. If you missed it, I encourage you to go back and read it.But there’s an important aspect in hearing from God that a lot of Christians miss. I’ll often have people ask to meet with me to help make a big decision, something that could be life-altering (job change, relocation, new relationship, etc.). And I’ll hear, “‘I’ve been praying, but I just don’t know what to do. I wish God would write it in the sky for me."Well, the Lord

I’m not one to claim that God is talking to me. I’m also very careful about saying that I’m doing something because God told me to. Not that God does not speak to his people or lead them in a certain direction. But I want to be careful not to violate the second commandment.The second commandment is essentially this, “Do not attach my name to something that I have not endorsed.” It’s what was done in the crusades. It was violated by many preachers in the south during slavery.

Yesterday was bill paying day. When Linda and I finished and closed the budget spreadsheet, I was in a whiny mood. Who likes sending money out…paying bills?But then a thought came to me, as though it were a rebuke from the Lord. “Look at all you get for what you pay!”I have a warm house in the winter; a cool house in the summer. I have two reliable cars, also with heat and air. We turn a knob, and we get our choice of hot or cold water. We turn another knob, and we have fire

I lifted weights pretty seriously in high school for the sake of athletics. Those of us who were into it, we were never content with whatever we were capable of at the time. My first goal was to just bench press my own weight, which wasn’t much. I kept increasing that goal by 10 lbs., and each time I’d achieve the next goal, I’d move it up again. We’d all test our “max” periodically, but the key to growing to what we were capable of was the daily 3 sets of 10 and increasing h

Philosopher Walter Kaufmann wrote a book ironically titled The Faith of a Heretic . After explaining our cosmic insignificance, he concluded: “What I want to do and would advise others to do is to make the most of life: put into it all you have got, and live, and, if possible, die with some measure of nobility.”I’m sorry, but to tell us to die with nobility when there is no hope beyond this short and trouble-filled life is farcical at best. Compare Kaufmann’s philosophy to Je

Next week is a milestone for me. I enter another decade of life. But honestly, my attitude is that it’s just another year closer to heaven.Aging has never bothered me. When I was in my twenties, I wanted my hair to go gray prematurely because I looked so young that I felt like I’d never get the respect I needed for ministry leadership. It didn’t go gray, it went away!But I’ve enjoyed every period of life since coming to Christ. I had a lot of friends in my college and seminar

The Equality Act. The words evoke emotion. I’ve gotten dozens of emails from Christian organizations warning of the far-reaching effects that this bill will have on women and Christian organizations. Some of them I didn’t read because it seems that every month the sending organization has a new reason why they believe the sky is falling. Because of all the political sensationalism that is publicized during this very divisive time, I’ve not paid close attention.  But a couple

I have an attitude indicator. It might be the most important instrument in the airplane, especially if it’s foggy outside. It tells me if the attitude of the airplane is right, which might be more important than you think. In-flight, attitude is the level position of the airplane, whether it’s flying straight and level, banking left or right, or pitching up or down. When a pilot loses sense of the airplane’s attitude, disaster is imminent. That’s why we have an attitude indic