Grumblers have a hard time hearing God speak. The Bible says, “Do everything without complaining” (Phil. 2:14). It’s our natural tendency to complain; we all do it at one time or another. But it is unnatural or even supernatural to give thanks in the midst of life’s trials. Being thankful gets our eyes off of [...]
Almost every week I meet someone who is experiencing the pain of an unfulfilled dream. I’ve discovered that unfulfilled dreams become a part of the Lord’s strategy to get us to where we can know Him more intimately and become the most fruitful. Jesus said: “…unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and [...]
Good leaders learn to resource their weaknesses. In other words, we need to know how God has “wired us” so we do not try to become someone we are not. All of us need people on our team who are able to do many things much better than we do. In his book Me, Myself, [...]
Floyd McClung was a friend, a mentor, and a great blessing to my life. His love for Jesus and his passion to do his part in fulfilling the Great Commission was always evident when I was with him. When I was a young writer, he walked me through the process of working with publishers. I [...]
Because worship is a function of the heart, there really are no formulas for worship. Worship is a lifestyle of bringing pleasure to God through the way we live. Jesus said that all worship must take place “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). Rick Warren wrote, “Every activity can be transformed into an act [...]
When our oldest daughter, Katrina, was about three years old, she could not hear properly in her right ear, so we took her to our family doctor. After giving her a thorough examination, he took a tube of water and shot it into her ear. Would you believe that a wad of paper came out?! [...]
St. Augustine of Hippo once said, “He who sings, prays twice.” When we sing and praise God from the heart, something happens. Our song and posture of praise help us see and understand God in a deeper way! We take our eyes off of our circumstances and put them on the Creator of all things. [...]
Meditating on the Word of God is powerful! Someone once said the mind is like a tree full of monkeys jumping from branch to branch. The whirl of distractions that clamor for our attention when we try to quiet ourselves often involve the usual cast of characters—our “to do” list, a chore we should have [...]
I have a dream—that our God will visit His people in our generation, both young and old together, in a way that we will experience His power and presence in our families, our churches, our communities and our nations like never before. This is a dream that I share with millions of God’s people in [...]
Twenty-five years ago, during a personal time with God, I felt an impression from the Lord that a man from Japan was coming to help me. I wrote this in my journal. Nearly every day for many years, I asked God for a “man from Japan” to come into my life. More than 10 years [...]