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It’s unbelievable.The evil personified in human beings with false religious zealotry is beyond our explanation.Some of us stared in disbelief when watching the first news reports. They put a man in a cage and burned him alive while he was screaming in pain. It is just unbelievable.And now we are hearing more. Over the last year these evil people have been systematically torturing, raping, selling as slaves, and beating to death…children. Children! In the name of religion!I do

When I was in college, a friend of mine was working the night shift at a small gas station/convenience store by himself. At around 1 AM, a man came in wearing a ski mask and holding a gun, demanding that he open the cash register. My friend, who’s name was Jim, thought it was me playing a prank, so he started laughing and said, “Ya, right, Scott. Take the ski mask off."The guy yelled, “My name isn’t Scott. Now OPEN THE CASH REGISTER!”Jim wasn’t convinced and then he said, “Wh

It's hard to believe.Eight years ago, having a thousand people worshiping together in a single weekend in this church seemed impossible.The first time I visited here, the bulletin had "141" recorded as the attendance the weekend before. I believe the average was about 200. Last weekend, we had 1,005.Does it matter? Does God care about counting the numbers we have in church? Does he rejoice when it's a big number?It’s hard to deny that God is into large crowds. Even in the Old

In his book “None of These Diseases,” S. I. McMillen tells a story of a young woman who wanted to go to college, but her heart sank when she read the question on the application blank that asked, "Are you a leader?" Being both honest and conscientious, she wrote, "No," and returned the application, expecting the worst. To her surprise, she received this letter from the college: "Dear Applicant: A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1,45

A big strong construction worker was sitting in my office with questions about faith and his eternal status. He said something like, “I don’t think I have a strong enough faith in Jesus to be saved."I asked him how much faith he needed. "I don’t know. But it seems like more than I have."I responded, “It’s not the strength of your faith that matters, it’s the object of your faith.”I asked him how much faith he needed for the chair he was sitting in to hold him up. And he said,

Harvard Business School conducted an interesting study years ago using graduates from their MBA program on goal-setting and business success. Of the graduates that year, only 3% had written goals, 13% had goals but could not present them in writing and 84% had no goals they could articulate. Ten years later, they followed up the study to see what the graduates had accomplished. The 13% who had goals, but did not write them down, had earned twice the income as the 84% who did

It’s impossible to prepare well for the future without reviewing and learning from the past. This might have been a great year for you, or a horrible year. But whether or not it has a lasting impact depends largely on how you bring it to a close.God wants to do some special things for you and through you this next year. But first, he wants you to see how he’s done that this last year. I’m a goal setter and planner. But I also love to keep past blessings alive by reviewing the

It seems like that’s what everyone wants us to believe. After all, the only reason Christians celebrated Jesus’ birth on December 25 was because the Romans had a pagan celebration on that day and Christians took it over. Right? Wrong. Serious scholars do not believe that. There’s no evidence for it. We have nothing in writing from early church fathers or ancient historians that indicate that Christmas was a takeover of an already Roman holiday. It’s just something that histor

Mary was a nobody. Joseph was too. Shepherds were the object of ridicule. Bethlehem was a tiny outpost.  But today, more people around the world know and admire them than the most famous of modern celebrities. The Christmas story is filled with little people, little places, and little things. It seems that God loves most to use those of us who are acutely aware of our limitations. I think he takes pleasure in overwhelming us with blessing that we know we could never have acco

It snowed last night and it felt like Christmas waking up and walking out in the cold air with a thin veil of snow crunching beneath my feel. But it won’t be here long. It’s supposed to get up to 50 tomorrow. Will it still feel  like Christmas? What puts you in the Christmas spirit? Shopping? Putting the tree up? Wrapping gifts? A Christmas concert? Family and friends gathering? The snow falling? I love all of those things…minus the shopping. But I’ve had a lot of beautiful C

One of our fine staff members made a very simple error in our database that left me with some incorrect information for a phone call I needed to make. I was a bit embarrassed on the phone for appearing like I “didn’t have a clue” but it wasn’t a big deal.I sent a quick note to Becky (oops…I mean the anonymous staff member) letting her know about the mistake, but I told her it wasn’t a big deal. She apologized and said that she felt bad because it’s her job to make me look goo

While some of you absolutely love this time of year, others of you dread it. For some, it brings back hurting memories and it feels physically and emotionally draining. But whether you love the season or hate it, it is here nonetheless.