When David wrote what we know of today as Psalm chapter fifty-one, it was a verbalization of the deepest cries of his heart in repentance for the sins that he had committed in violating an innocent neighbor and then plotting her husband’s murder in his attempt to...
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach...
One thing that keeps us from consistency and dedication in our prayers is that we often don’t see results. When we don’t seem to get answers, it is easy to feel a bit unmotivated toward more attempts that may prove just as pointless. However, prayer should be the...
Jeremiah lived in tumultuous times -- times of the making and breaking of kings and kingdoms. He began his ministry during Josiah’s sweeping reformation that turned the nation toward repentance from widespread idolatry; yet, Jeremiah continued to prophesy under the...
The initial request in the Lord’s Prayer is that God’s kingdom would come to earth. (Matthew 6:10) Not only did Jesus pray that it would come, He also prophesied that it would come -- or, at least, that the message about its arrival would eventually be spread through...
When I was growing up, I would often hear the pastor preach about salvation, using terms like, “If I you die without Christ, you will split hell wide open,” or “Come to Jesus before it is everlasting too late.” With that kind of cohesion and very descriptive images of...
My sister and I were enjoying a “fun day” in Atlanta when we decided to have lunch at a spot from our childhoods. We knew almost exactly where this particular drive-in was located, so we headed out to find it. Unfortunately, the city of Atlanta has grown a lot in...
We have learned that David’s key and the key we need to open the door for us to reach our world is to have a perfect heart. Of course, we’ve all heard the expression, “Have a heart,” but today let’s consider exactly what that means. To get started, let’s take a...
In 2004, Michelangelo’s famous sculpture, David, went through an extensive cleaning and restoration process in celebration of its five-hundredth birthday. Half a millennium of grime has been removed to once again reveal the majestic splendor with which the...
Several years ago, when I ran across a book entitled Everything I Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten, I knew that I was in trouble since I never went to kindergarten. However, I have since come to realize that everything I really needed to know, I learned by...
When the little boy’s mom put her finger to her lips and blew out a little “shh” to remind him to be quiet in church, the lad looked quizzically back at his mother and whispered, “How come do we have to be quiet in church? Are there people trying to sleep?” Yes,...
INTRODUCTION While I was ministering in Belfast, Ireland, my host took me around the city to become acquainted a bit with its history and traditions. We, of course, made a stop at the shipyard where the ill-fated Titanic was built and made an extensive tour of sites...
Perhaps a more twenty-first century word for the fire of God would be “passion.” The very word somehow stirs our inner emotions and arouses something inside us. It is amazing at how often we run across the term “passion” in our daily reading. It appears almost...
Just prior to His ascension, Jesus appeared to the disciples in Jerusalem and emphasized another dimension of the Great Commission—the need to be supernaturally empowered for the task before them. He then led them to the Mount of Olives where He reemphasized this...
Just as I had discovered that there were three keys in David’s approach to challenging the giant and that there were three aspects to each of these keys, the committee developing the discipleship program understood that there was also a three-pronged approach to...
Now, let’s go back to the discussion I was having with God over the Great Commission passage in Matthew’s gospel. Although I was very familiar with the King James Version’s rendering, to “teach all nations,” I was also aware that most modern translations use the...
In Matthew chapter twenty-eight, Jesus appeared to the eleven on a mountainside in the Galilee area. There, He gave them a little different perspective on His Commission—discipleship. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven...
The next point I see in the story of Nineveh is the missed opportunity to shepherd the new converts. As best as we can tell, Jonah did nothing to follow up on the great revival in Nineveh. It was likely the greatest missed opportunity in all of human history; yet...
The Apostle does not place all the credit for the effectiveness of his ministry on signs and wonders alone. In I Thessalonians 1:5, Paul makes one simple statement that reveals five distinct elements in his approach to winning a city—five keys to a city, if you wish...
When John the Beloved recorded the Great Commission, he remembered the words of Jesus stating that He was sending the church into the world in the same way that the Father sent Him. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were...