So learn about Jesus! Follow the sacred counsel of Ezekiel and eat the scroll. Learn about Jesus for His word is a lamp unto our feet (or for our present moments) and a light unto our paths (that is, for our future) amidst moral blackouts and human power failures. Learn about Jesus for what a tragic mindset in the church that many will go here and there to be bigger, better teachers, lawyers, doctors, but when it comes to Christian education, many choose to be mental moral midgets, spiritual shrimps and shorties, religious runts, whose inner growth is stunted from...

We have a natural tendency to slip back into our old sinful ways. I have a natural tendency to do what's wrong. But then I have a supernatural tendency to do what's right. We can compare our tendencies to a flower and a weed. A weed is like our old natures - that part of us that doesn't want to obey God. The flower is like our new natures. My wife loves to plant flowers. She tends them and cares for them. She puts snail repellent down, picks any weeds that get even remotely close, fertilizes them, and watches over...

When I bought, Marva J. Dawn's book on worship, Reaching Out without Dumbing down, I jumped to chapter 9 to read it first, because of its provocative title: "Worship Ought to Kill Us: The Word." When I finished that chapter, it took me some time to get back to the book. I needed to pull myself together. As startling as this statement sounds, it really is an understatement. (By the way, we live in a day when we need truth stated in startling ways to get us to pay attention to divine realities that we have become too familiar with.)...

In the preface to The Roots of Endurance, a collection of biographical sketches on the invincible perseverance in the lives John Newton, Charles Simeon, and William Wilberforce, John Piper, Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis and featured teacher of Desiring God Ministries, writes: As I write this Preface I have just preached to my people several messages in which I pleaded with them to be "coronary Christians," not "adrenal Christians." Not that adrenaline is bad, I said; it gets me through lots of Sundays. But it lets you down on Mondays. The heart is another kind of friend. It...

I read this poem, of sorts, some years ago. It is written anonymously. And it has been given many different attributions - a foreign missionary, an African pastor, etc. But while the author is unknown; the message is clear: Being a faithful and fruitful minister of Jesus Christ requires our total commitment, absolute devotion, and full allegiance. I reread this challenging testimony again this morning. May you be inspired, as I was again today, to give God your best as you read these words: "I'm part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit power, The die has...

It struck me one day in a Christian bookstore that most of the "church growth" books I picked up in that store were not books on vision but on image. They hadn't been published to help me see the world in a particular way but to help the world see me - were I a megachurch pastor - in a particular way. They were books that enticed the pastor of limited self-image to be like somebody else the world admired. What a cul-de-sac of emotional poverty this is. These books were published to serve the idolatries of megapastor wannabes. -...

I watched portions of the YouTube/CNN Democratic Presidential Debate last night. I kind of watched and channel-surfed at the same time. One of the times I turned back to the debate, Senator Joe Biden was speaking. I don't know what question he was answering, but his line was great. Quoting his father, Biden said, "Don't talk to me about your values. Show me your budget." Amen. May we, as Christ-followers, embrace this principle as a clear way to measure our spiritual values. Indeed, how me manage our money is an objective indicator of our spiritual devotion. Jesus stated it in...