Twenty years ago I served as senior pastor of a mega-church. I often felt insecure and struggled with knowing how to make decisions and lead effectively, especially when there were differing viewpoints. One day one of our team members said, “Go find a leader you trust and ask him to mentor you.” I took his [...]
I meet many people who feel condemned and live in shame. I completely understand. I have been there many times. But God does not condemn. He has come to give us freedom from shame and condemnation. The battle is in our minds. Many confuse conviction with condemnation, but they are polar opposites. The devil condemns. [...]
The older I get, the more I realize how powerful my words are. We must be careful how we speak. Matthew 12:34 says, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” In other words, we believe with our heart, and what we speak is often what we really believe. Life and death [...]
One of the chief obstacles to surrendering to the Lord is our fear of losing control. A few years ago, a squad of police in our county entered a home to confiscate a computer that was being used for illegal activity. One of the men living in the home, in a state of fear and [...]
If you’ve seen the movie "What About Bob?" you will remember that a therapy patient, who fears everything and anything, is initially advised by his therapist to take “baby steps” to learn to function normally. The comical story takes us through the many antics of Bob as he learns to take those first steps. When [...]
A few months ago Time Magazine’s cover story focused on a Latino Reformation in America. It documented stories of churches in America that were doubling in size every few years. Their common denominator: Latino Charismatic and Pentecostal churches. The reporter, after visiting various Latino churches said, "All were fervent believers—they sang with hands high, and [...]
Mark Rutland, former president of Oral Roberts University, recently wrote that at age 21 he was in an Amish kitchen in Bird-in-Hand, PA. This is about sixteen miles from our house. He said he saw a sign that he’ll never forget: “Too soon old, too late smart.” “When I saw it,” he said, “I thought [...]
Two Sundays ago I ministered in Kampala, Uganda, last week in Nairobi Kenya, and today in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Three different cities in two completely different parts of the world, but with so much in common. Each country is facing troubling times including potential corruption in government, yet in each country I met amazing believers [...]
Fifteen years ago while on a trip to East Africa, I met Davis. He was in his early 20s and had just received Christ and was being discipled by my friend Ephraim from Uganda. Ephraim was starting a church in Kampala Uganda at that time and was looking to my friend and church planter Ibrahim [...]
Just over a week ago, 20,000 believers met in Hong Kong for a holy convocation. YWAM’s Lynn Green called it “Indescribable.” He said, “There were three sessions a day and the Chinese believers who made up the vast majority of this event lined up about 10-abreast for over a mile before every session.“ The Church [...]
