Even a cursory overview of Paul’s life is alarming. Paul put himself through stuff that makes the Badwater 135 look like “treat-yo-self” spa day! Paul received countless beatings, he was often near death, and frequently in prison. Five times he received forty lashings minus one. Three times he was beaten with rods. Once he was […]
What is the premiere picture of a successful church? Jesus must be our most emphatic, and most-highly esteemed, paradigm of success. That means, the MOST SUCCESSFUL, MOST WORTHY OF ESTEEM AND EMULATION, CHURCH looks like Jesus and the apostles. The apostles, bear in mind, were blue-collar uneducated fisherman and former tax-collectors and zealots. Eventually, Jesus […]
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather […]
We esteem sumptuous houses. We esteem ease and prosperity. We esteem academic credentials. We esteem opulent facilities (be they religious, recreational, or resort). We esteem exotic accents. We esteem the good-looking, prepossessing, and charming. We esteem popularity, marketability, and superficial fashion. And we invariably strive to imitate what we esteem. God commends ESTEEMING & IMITATING. […]
I’ve noticed that Jesus is often vamoosing amidst a society of people frantically promoting fame. Our appetite for “likes”, and validation, and flattery is crazed and exorbitant. But Jesus did all kinds of impressive stuff, and never once felt the need to publish His performance on Instagram, TikTok, or any other self-adulation platform. For instance, […]
This morning I was reading a pair of letters from one of our leaders. It was startling, and it was sumptuous. Here are a couple of examples of what I mean… The end of the second letter says, “Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times in every way. The […]
Question: did Jesus strive to keep a low profile? Answer: yes (Mark 9:30). Question: why is Jesus always trying to keep a low profile? Answer: because Jesus is determined to be crucified, and he knows that once he explicitly tells the crowds what he’s about, they will murder him (see John 6:60-61); and Jesus isn’t […]
Remember that episode of The Office when Michael dates Pam’s mom? Remember how it drives Pam bonkers? Remember how the tension builds and eventually boils over in the break room when Pam yells at Michael, “Stop dating my mother!” And Michael says, “You know what? I’m gonna start dating her even harder.” Here’s the clip. […]
I was riding my mountain bike this morning at Sherman Branch crying. Was I crying because I love being on the trail? My love of trails is definitely tear-worthy, but that’s not why I was crying. Was I crying because I fell off my bike? Not this time. …I was crying because I was listening […]
I was having lunch with my buddies Paul and Matt today. At one point Paul said, “I think speech is a big problem.” Matt asked, “What are you talking about?” Paul said, “It seems like people don’t understand how much wreckage is wrought by their words. Freedom of speech is regarded as license to say […]