The Notebook

If you were to look at my personal profile on this site you would see that one of my hobbies is trying to get my basement finished. It has been a three and a half year project, with all the labor being done by myslef and my wife Julie. When we bought our home our […]...

Showing compassion aka mercy to other people is a hard thing for most of us to do, myself included. When someone has hurt us or done something to harm us, our gut instinct is to get back at them as much as they hurt us. It all boils down to the one word that we […]...

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." Matthew 5:6 NIV   In the world, 20,000 people die of hunger each day. In this same world, over 1 billion people live on under $1/day. No wonder, so many are hungry.    In the United States:...

A fellow bogger, Steve McCoy posted an article on his blog a couple of days ago titled, "I Am Gay Friendly" by Christi Avanat that got me to thinking.  To read the article go to http://www.stevekmccoy.com/sbc/2005/07/on_being_gay_fr.html Being the pastor of a church that meets in a mo...

Below is an excerpt for a research paper written for my Masters. I thought it might be helpful, because we as pastors many times struggle with the issue of administration. Because of the way the term Administration is used today, we tend to think of this gift (see 1Co 12:28) in terms of mere adminis...

  There is a compelling story in the book of Luke, chapter 19 about a man named Zaccheus. But it’s made more so by the fact that just one chapter earlier, in the Bible Jesus had made a very piercing statement about people like Zacchaeus who were prosperous in those days. Look at what Jesus [&...

Your most important objective in life is to grow spiritually. Once you know Jesus Christ, it’s more important than your job. It’s more important than your marriage. It’s more important than making a million dollars and retiring. It’s the very reason you were put on this earth. God put you he...

Spiritual growth, spiritual maturity is a choice. You are as close to God as you want to be. Don’t blame anybody else. It’s not God’s fault. If you feel far from God, guess who moved? God did not move. You cannot blame your husband or your wife or your parents or your kids or somebody [&hellip...

Jesus once told the story in the Bible, which illustrates the three common barriers that keep you from growing spiritually. The story is found in Luke 8:4-15.  He says there’s a farmer that goes out to sow seed. In the old days they would literally spread it with their hands. As this farmer t...

Are you stressed?  If you live in America, then you have experienced stress at one point in time.  It could be while you were driving on the freeway and traffic was backed up bumper to bumper. Or possibly when little Junior was throwing a tantrum, the dog was chasing the cat, the telephone...