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The other evening I lit a small campfire in our backyard fire pit. I enjoy looking into the flames and studying the way fire consumes the wood, transforming it into smoke and ashes. I said to my wife, "Watch this," and I used the poker to pull a red hot coal from the midst of the flame, out to the edge of the pit, away from the other embers. In a matter of a couple of minutes, the glowing remnant of wood went from bright orange, to dark red, and then black. Away from the othe

There is no success without sacrifice. Every major accomplishment is preceded by someone’s sacrifice. Any success you have enjoyed took sacrifice to make it happen. It might not have been yours, but someone sacrificed for you to enjoy success. Seeing our radical objective come to fruition will take sacrifice. Are you willing? Is this objective from Jesus important enough to you to sacrifice for?     We’ve already talked about the necessity of prayer, and most of us are prayin

Is it really a radical objective to take seriously Jesus’ Great Commission? It probably shouldn’t be, but for too many Christians, it is. Too many Christians have little desire to see the family of God grow. Some are even critical of growth in the church. Sadly, they want to keep the church all to themselves. But Jesus made it clear, and the example we have in the Book of Acts is that God wants His church to grow. He wants more churches, and he wants all of them to grow. I th

Jesus said that where two or three are gathered together in his name, he would be in the midst of them. He also told his followers to go out into the highways and hedges and compel people to come in. In Acts we read Luke proclaim with rejoicing that 3,000 were saved and added to the church on her first day, and then 5,000 more were added a few weeks later. Over a dozen times in the first fifteen chapters of the book, we read Luke rejoicing over the many numbers of people who

When the type on his printer began to grow faint, Bob called a local repair shop where a friendly clerk informed him the printer probably needed only to be cleaned. Because the store charged $50 for such cleanings, he told Bob he might be better off reading the printer's manual and trying the job himself.     Pleasantly surprised by his candor, Bob asked, "Does your boss know that you discourage business?"     "Actually, it's my boss' idea," the employee replied sheepishly. "

Saparmurat Niyazov served as president of the former Soviet block nation, Turkmenistan, from 1990 until his death in 2006. While his title was “President”, he changed the title to “President for Life”, declaring it to be a lifelong position with no need for ongoing elections, also making him the nation’s dictator. He was eccentric, to say the least, and made sweeping senseless legal changes at every whim. Among other things, he banned keeping dogs in the capital city, along w

In May 1995, Randy Reid, a 34-year-old construction worker, was welding on top of a nearly completed water tower in our area. According to writer Melissa Ramsdell, Reid unhooked his safety gear to reach for some pipes when a metal cage slipped and bumped the scaffolding he stood on. The scaffolding tipped, and Reid lost his balance. He fell 110 feet, landing face down on a pile of dirt, just missing rocks and construction debris. A fellow worker called 911.     When paramedic

Two sisters, a year apart in middle school, returned from winter break after a week at Disney World with their family. One was down in the dumps and when asked what was wrong, she retorted, “I just came back from a week off school in Florida to this freezing cold weather and homework––that’s what’s wrong.”     The other sister was all smiles and at the top of the world. She was asked why she was so happy. “I just came back from a week with my family in Florida, where it was w

We have vine trouble at our house. The previous owners planted some kind of flowering vine along the fence, and it is pretty during its blooming season. But I hate it. It sends out creepers everywhere and gets itself into everything. We’ve been working the last couple of years to keep it at bay, but it seems like where we pull one section out, a creeper moves over from a nearby area and a week later fills in what we cleared out. It chokes off many of our other plants and even

About a dozen years ago, a pastor-friend of mine made a dream hire. He was able to convince a young man to join him in a small town in Wisconsin as his assistant pastor. This young man had everything going for him on his resume. He had glowing references, a near 4.0 gpa from arguably the most respected Bible college (Moody) and seminary (Trinity) in the country. During his Moody years, he was so well thought of by his peers that he was elected student body president. In Semin

The internet is a crazy thing. Do you pay attention to YouTube videos that take off? “Viral” they call it, when an amateur posts a video and it receives over a million views. Some videos that have gone viral have been “interesting” to say the least. From cute things that kids do, to spy videos of people fighting, crazy accidents, and funny animal stunts, viral videos run the gamut.     But the latest one is the talk of the month. Jeff Bethke is a talented 22 year old amateur

Things are pretty tense in Korea right now. Since the death of North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong Il a few weeks ago, and his son, Kim Jong-un (in his late 20s), assuming the role of supreme commander, South Korea is understandably concerned about the near future. There has never been a peace treaty agreement between North and South Korea since the Korean War in the early 50s, and North Korea has amassed over a million soldiers along the demilitarization zone.     My two sons a