"Now then, my sons, listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways. Listen to my instructions and be wise; do not ignore it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For whoever finds me, finds life and receives favor from the Lord. But whoever fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death" (Proverbs 8:32-36, t...

Yesterday, we sang one of my all time favorite songs during worship: "How Deep the Father's Love for Us". I'm always moved how the author of the lyrics beautifully captures the message of the gospel, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I can't help but shed a few tears of pure joy and shame as I belt out the words. "How deep the Father's love for us, how vast bey...

"as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God" 1 Thessalonians 2:2 Every week, my wife meets with an accountability group. As they were studying/sharing last week, a friend that hadn't attended before joined the group. She was unsure of her relationship with God but wanted to know more. As you might expect, the group, shared the good news ...

HERE WE GO AGAIN! This will be my 55th New Year's celebration. Of course I don't remember any of them prior to around age 10-12. However, whether conscience of them or not, they came and went each year and each time symbolizing something really significant for the human psyche. It's not hard to see it coming: all the diet programs start blitzing the airwaves with promise...

Good Morning. I know I'm blogging out of order, so forgive me! I just felt compelled to share what was on my heart this morning as I enjoyed my coffee and time in His word amongst the wrappings and kids playing with their latest treasures. It is my hope this morning that someone might read this blog and realize there is a gift yet unopened for them. Someone who awoke this...

Thank you to the men of my small group who gave me the idea of today's blog: Read 2 Kings 5. You will read the story of Naaman, a "commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded...". (2 Kings 5:1) Naaman had one big problem though; leprosy. In those days, leprosy was a huge issue both medically and socially. S...

Psalm 139: 13-16 says "For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed...

Why do believers love? In my morning bible reading today I was in 1 John 4:1-21 reading about the power reasons that John lists why Christians practice love. I was reading out of the MacArthur Daily bible and I appreciate how MacArthur summarized verse 7-21. I'd like to pass along the essence of what John the author and Dr. MacArthur say about the five reasons why believe...

September 11th: Those words cause mix reactions in different people. 14 years ago, those of us on the west coast were waking up to a nightmare in the United States. Even now, so many years later, there is still anger, fear, and questions associated with them. Evil still exists in the world. Now we have police officers being targeted, sex trafficking, domestic violence on t...

The small group I'm in is starting Francis Chan's "You and Me Forever". We are excited about what we've heard from other believers about this book and how it has impacted their lives. There are a couple concepts just in the introduction that spurred great conversation last night and a feeling about what God could be starting to do in our own lives! There is one passage in...