Simplify, Slow Down, and Be Still

Since the summer of 2021, God has been speaking to me about our pace of life here in America, even within the church. Virtually everyone I talk with shares in one way or another, how busy they are and how little margin there is in their lives when the unexpected happens.  This was generally the case before Covid and the pandemic has only served to increase the tension. The result oftentimes is we feel overwhelmed, stressed out, ...

Realigning Ourselves with God's Plan

I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness,  but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12) The world most of us grew up in is gone.  It’s hard to fathom how quickly it happened but it did happen.  We long for a sense of normalcy to be restored but our “normal” of the past is unlikely to return anytime soon, if at all?  This constant of life ...

God Wants to Make You the Hero in His Story

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.   And he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, and the earth produced its fruit. (James 5:17-18) It’s amazing to contemplate, isn’t it?  James writes in the verses above that as a result of the prayers of Elijah it did not rain upon the earth ...

While We Head for a New Reality, God is Doing a New Thing

Like many of you, I have been listening to others discuss what they believe life is going to be like once we have passed through the immediate crisis created by the COVID 19 virus. Opinions abound, and they vary widely, with some emphasizing the negative impact while others focus on the opportunities the changes will create.  The only point of agreement it seems is there will be no going back completely to the way things were, in either ...

Experiencing the Truth You Know

“If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:31-32) In these words of Jesus, recorded for us by the apostle John, we find one of the key ingredients to experiencing the abundant life Jesus died to give us.  Jesus says if we “abide” (literally remain in, or practice) His word, we prove ourselves to truly be His ...

Forgetting What God Hasn't Done

In my preparations for the Revive event, I was reflecting on some of what God has been doing over the past 12 months, and more broadly my past 11 years here in Omaha.  It’s been an amazing journey in so many ways and I am truly grateful for the life transformation that we have experienced together.  God has revealed truth, manifested His love, healed hearts, and set people free from demonic oppression.  He has also taught ...

God Wants to Set Your Heart on Fire

This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. (1 Timothy 1:18-19) How long has it been since God’s Word has exploded in your heart, moving you emotionally, challenging your faith and rearranging your life ...

A Season of Waiting

December 1, 2019, is the first Sunday in Advent, a season of expectation and waiting.  Most of us enjoy the expectation part, looking forward to the promised return of Jesus the Messiah.  It is not hard to let one’s imagination go trying to anticipate what it will be like when Jesus returns to earth at the end of time.  Scripture only gives us glimpses but we know that it will be glorious, with Jesus and His angels ...

Are You Resisting the Holy Spirit?

While leading one of our Doorway to Discovery retreats this past weekend, God surprised me with a general warning that I think we all need to be aware of.  It isn’t that we have already, necessarily, been guilty of this violation, its just that we are all susceptible to it because it often operates in our blind spots.  The concern I have in mind is “resisting the Holy Spirit,” an activity that is relatively easy to ...

Obstacles to God's Best

The human heart is an interesting study.  Understanding our own is a challenging pursuit and rightly discerning what is really going on in our heart generally comes by way of revelation by the Holy Spirit.  Human pride, the fountainhead of many of our sins, is always lurking in the background looking for ways to establish itself.  Sometimes boldly, often more subtly, pride declares our special position as one of God’s ...

Viewing Life Through Another Person's Experience

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to connect with an old friend, someone I have known for over 30 years.  We used to see each other regularly when we both lived in Minnesota but he moved to a warmer climate for health reasons and I went to Nebraska for a new ministry assignment.  We continued to communicate periodically, mostly by phone, but it grew more intermittent as the years went by.  Eventually, we were only ...

How is Fear Stealing from You?

Like many people, I used to be afraid of public speaking.  I could speak without fear one-on-one or in small groups but the thought of being upfront in a group of people, even a relatively small group of people, was terrifying.  This fear was so strong in me that even as I went through my college and seminary experience, I told myself I wasn’t called to traditional pastor roles because I knew all of them required a significant ...

Are You Misreading Your Pain?

In the spring of 2018, I began to notice that my lower back was sore all the time. This seemed a little bit unusual but Barb and I were doing lots of landscaping work in the yard.  We were moving dirt, laying landscaping stones and putting down mulch which all required lots of lifting and bending.  The pain, while more intense and more constant than other times in my life, it was explainable I thought?  First, I was older than ...

Finding Life, Direction and Encouragement in the Bible

One of the best investments I made in my life was the time, energy and money it took to learn to study the Bible.  Soon after I made my adult recommitment of faith, I spent several years developing a personal approach to studying Scripture that reflected its essential nature as the inspired, authoritative Word of God.  In those years, I also resolved many of the issues that trouble people when it comes to understanding Scripture and ...

Becoming Amateurs Again

Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it. -  (Isaiah 43:19a) On a recent trip to Nashville, TN I was listening to a prophetic minister by the name of David Wagner.  It was a gathering of Restoring the Foundations leaders from around the country and he was reminding us of the importance of remaining alert to the new things God is doing in and around us. For often they are signs of ...

Setting Yourself Apart

Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you (Joshua 3:5) I have for many years been both comforted and challenged by the book of Joshua.  Using our imaginations, we can put ourselves into Joshua’s life story and feel the weight that is upon him as he is tasked by the Lord to lead the people of Israel into the Promised Land.  The book starts with, “now it came about after the death of Moses ...

Our Time is Now

In September of 2018, I wrote an article on the importance of our paying attention to the seasons and stages of our lives.  It is critical that we understand what God is doing around us generally and where we are at in life currently.  Knowing these realities helps us respond appropriately to the events and opportunities God provides for us specifically, at any given time.  The following are a couple of key paragraphs from that ...

Staying Teachable

2 Timothy 2:15 - Be diligent to present yourselves approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth. Over the last 6 months God has driven home for me our need to remain teachable, especially in areas where we believe we believe we have learned everything there is to learn.  Last December God revealed a lack of understanding I had about a verse of Scripture I had prayed over and ...

Walking in Forgiveness

Matthew 18:21-35 Every follower of Jesus Christ has experienced the power of forgiveness.  They know the transforming energy that comes with knowing they have been forgiven of their many sins, have been cleansed and restored to a right relationship with God.  The clear teaching of Scripture is that we who have experienced the magnitude of God’s forgiveness, are then required to forgive those who have sinned against us in a ...

The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living

Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life (Proverbs 4:23) In about 400 BC it was Socrates who first said, “the unexamined life is not worth living.”  It was spoken by him at his trial where he was charged with corrupting the youth of his day and his refusal to acknowledge the gods of the state.  His point to his prosecutors was it would be better to die and be able to pursue ...

The Kingdom Fourishes in a Good Heart

In our Transforming Together meeting this month we looked at the power of words, words we believe and words we say.  Speaking is such a normal part of our daily experience it is easy to grow complacent in monitoring our speech, though we know it is critically important to our experience of life.  Equally as important is the condition of our hearts, a matter Jesus addresses in His parable of the soils in Luke chapter 8.  Jesus ...

Finding Your Place in God's Story

 “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why?”  -Mark Twain    The Bible records for us God’s salvation history of humankind and it is primarily His story, God’s sovereign activity unfolding in and through His people.   The story begins with the creation accounts in Genesis 1-2, is closely followed by the fall of the human race ...

The Call to Surrender

On March 10, 1974, Lt. Hiroo Onada was the last World War II Japanese soldier to surrender.  Onada had been left on the island Lubang in the Philippines on December 25, 1944, with the command to "carry on the mission even if Japan surrenders." Four other Japanese soldiers were left on the island as Japan evacuated Lubang. One soldier surrendered in 1950 and another was killed in a skirmish with local police in 1954. A third was ...

A Date to Remember

The very first official sermon I preached was based on Joshua chapter 4.  It was the spring of 1990 and I was doing a pastoral internship at the church where I grew up, Calvary Lutheran Church of Golden Valley, MN.  The sermon experience was memorable for me personally, for a number of reasons, and so it was a bit of serendipity that the main point of the text was the Lord’s call to remember.  To refresh your memory, ...

Walking in the Spirit

Living with and for Jesus the King, in His Kingdom, is a supernatural lifestyle that cannot be accomplished living out of our human abilities.  Loving God and loving others as Jesus loved us, living by faith and representing the Kingdom of God to the world around us cannot be accomplished apart from the Holy Spirit’s activity in our lives. In the midst of our daily routines, the Holy Spirit grants us ordinary grace gifts of light ...


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