For as long as I can remember, I have desired to experience God and His church like I have seen modeled in the book of Acts. As a young man, I remember studying the Scriptures to discover the necessary components of church from God’s perspective. I knew that if two or three gather in His [...]
Every generation needs new churches, or as Jesus called them, “new wineskins,” to meet the spiritual needs of their present generation. Tim Keller, who pastors Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, in his article, Why Plant Churches, says, “The vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for 1) the numerical [...]
I have heard it said hundreds of times: “We do not need more churches in our community. We have enough churches already.” I disagree. We cannot fulfill the Great Commission without planting churches. We need new churches! Jesus, when He ascended into heaven two thousand years ago, left a spiritual family of 120 believers in [...]
Some varieties of trees, when first planted, need to have a stake driven into the ground next to the tree. A rope then is tied around the tree and stake until the tree can grow tall and strong enough to hold itself. God has called you and me to be “stakes” for people, helping to [...]
I have a friend who served as a pastor in India for many years. He said, “In Eastern cultures, we see the Bible differently than you do. We see in pictures. We read in the scriptures that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17), and we really see faith [...]
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “What lies behind you and what lies before you, pales in comparison to what lies inside you.” If we purpose in our hearts to read and study the Bible daily in 2015, it will change our lives forever from the inside out. John Adams, the second president of the United [...]
The right question is not, “How do I get faith”? but “How do I exercise the faith that God has already given me”? Faith is a “gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). God uses His divine spoon to give each of us a “measure of faith” according to Romans 12:3, ”in accordance with the measure of [...]
Have you ever heard of Mordecai Ham? Very few people have heard of him, and yet he has had a profound effect on the nations of the world. While Mordecai was preaching at a revival meeting in a tent, a young man came one evening and gave his life to Jesus. That man’s name was [...]
While speaking to a group of teenagers in Scotland, I reached into my pocket, pulled out some money and offered it to a young man in the audience. I told him that he could say, “I believe in the money,” but he needed to receive the money for it to be his. I said, “If [...]
Just because we knew the Lord in a personal way in the past does not necessarily mean that we have a close relationship with Him today. I was making a point of this truth some years ago while speaking at a public high school. I asked the students, “Do any of you still know your [...]