It’s a mystery how God answers prayer. Why do we have to wait for many answers? Sometimes things get worse before they get better. In God’s mercy, He may answer better. We look back and say, I’m glad God didn’t answer that prayer! Can we miss praying acco
For some of my prayer requests, I think God won’t answer. Some seem too little and others too large. Do you have the experience like me when I envision my prayers dissolving in thin air like mist? God indeed wants our prayers answered, which should be the
Prayer is as much position as it’s petition. If your life is weak, your prayer will collapse. We can’t fake out God. It’s the “fervent prayer of a righteous man” that accomplishes much (James 5:16). If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not h
Patience and Perseverance
It takes many hours to catch a fish. The same is true in sharing our faith. Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching in the synagogues, preaching good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness (severe pain, demon-
Our mission agency, Christ For the City Int’l, spent a day serving during our bi-annual board meetings. During lunch, I sat down next to a man eating alone. I asked, “How’s your day going?”
After an awkward pause, he opened up. I sensed a melancholy spir
Jesus’ parable of the soils, also known as the parable of the sower, is found in three places (Matthew 13:1-9; Mark 4:1-9; Luke 8:4-8). A farmer sows seed along a path, rocky places, thorns, and good soil.
On the path, birds came and ate up the seed. On
I asked a church intern to go prayer knocking with me in a low-income area of Lincoln. At our third residence, my partner and I looked up and saw a guy smoking. Frank stared at us from the top floor of an apartment complex. We asked, “Would you like to he
Since becoming a believer, I have observed the difficulty in maintaining a balance between building up believers and reaching those outside the faith. Embracing the two Great Commandments of loving God with all our heart, mind and soul & loving our neighbor as ourselves empowers us to make disciples (Matt. 22:34-40; 28:18-20). Churches often try…
Each stage of life has its own temptations. In school, it was tempting to cheat in order to get better grades. Various forms of entertainment looked good to the eye, but were either a waste of time or dangerous morally. In my work world, I experienced the temptation to get ahead in the corporate world…
Christianity is often portrayed as keeping a list of do’s and don’ts instead of a relationship with a living Savior, Jesus Christ. Like many young people, I rejected the church. It seemed to represent a club among those who don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t dance and stay apart from those that do those things. After…
While in college, we spent endless hours debating various prophetic schemes trying to figure out from Scripture the right one. Was it amillennial or one of the pre-millennial views: pre-tribulational, mid-tribulational or post-tribulational? It may be none of the above. Many books have been written predicting the time of Christ’s return and all are wrong….
I remember the sinking feeling taking tests in schools when I hadn’t studied sufficiently. Not being prepared gets us in trouble. Most experts agree the federal government wasn’t prepared to help the multitudes of hungry, thirsty and desperate victims of Hurricane Katrina. It scrimped on storm spending and shifted its attention from dealing with natural…