Posts with the category “devotional”

 2 Timothy 1:3-7 “I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy.  I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. For this reason I remind ...  Read More

“Psyche yourself up!” We’ve all told ourselves that at some point. I remember when I played sports in my (much) younger days, preparing myself mentally and emotionally to get out there and win. I remember one game in particular, we were playing our league rival. Mind you, this was like when I was 10 or 11-years-old, so it wasn’t playing for the national title but still a big game. I played linebac...  Read More

I don't know about you, but when Sarah and I watch a movie (a chick flick) it is almost impossible for me to stay focused. Chances are there is some sporting event I would much rather be watching, and my attention drifts to my phone to watch it. Which almost always leads Sarah to asking— ”Are you even watching this? Do you even care about what is going on in this movie?” I tend to think I have the...  Read More

Have you ever had a mentor or mentored someone? It is a task that comes with great responsibility, maybe some frustrations, but ultimately great joy. Mentoring at its core is showing someone how to do what you do by teaching them and developing them, so that one day they can fly solo. This is a common practice within the workspace, but should be used more so within the church! There are so many yo...  Read More

2 Kings 10:15-17 “After he left there, he came upon Jehonadab son of Rekab, who was on his way to meet him. Jehu greeted him and said, “Are you in accord with me, as I am with you?” “I am,” Jehonadab answered. “If so,” said Jehu, “give me your hand.” So he did, and Jehu helped him up into the chariot. 16 Jehu said, “Come with me and see my zeal for the LORD.” Then he had him ride along in his char...  Read More

Everyone has a start. In other words, the most successful people on the planet had to start somewhere. Someone gave them a chance. I think back to the first interview I had with the pulpit committee here at Emmanuel. I had no real experience as a lead pastor. I had been a youth pastor or involved in youth ministry for two decades, but that’s very different than leading multiple generations in a le...  Read More

Main Point and Overview:  There is a dearth of leadership in God’s church! Why is that? It’s because not enough “investment” is taking place. By definition, investment is an act of devoting time, effort, or energy to a particular undertaking with the expectation of a worthwhile result (Oxford Languages). The American church is filled with consumers over producers. We tend to come and “take in” fro...  Read More

Driving along I-75 this week, I noticed a billboard advertising the upcoming lottery jackpot. My mind quickly and lazily went into a pleasant daydream focusing on what I would do with the winnings.  Maybe you’ve done the same. Statistics show that one of the first things that lottery winners do is quit their job followed by paying off debt, booking a luxury vacation, going on a shopping spree; buy...  Read More

Planning for the long game. That requires strategic thinking. I spent a couple of years as a war planner. We were stationed in Germany at the time of that assignment. It was during that time our country experienced the tragedy of 9/11. I found myself in the middle of writing war plans and annexes for how we would embed media, talking points and messaging, and our overall public affairs strategy. I...  Read More

I remember the day I walked through Great Lakes Baptist Temple with the other Pastors, the vision of another campus was in full swing, everything was falling into place but what I didn't realize was the amount of work that would go into the transformation of that building. From the roof needing to be redone, to bathrooms needing repaired, to a gym floor, to countless upgrades. We had the team in p...  Read More

A “living sacrifice”—that is quite an oxymoron. How can a person be living, while also being a sacrifice? From what the human mind thinks of when it comes to sacrifice, nothing about that sounds fun. Sacrificing in modern day times, usually is in reference to giving up something—like time, money, possessions, those types of things. We don’t have a context for what sacrificing means when it comes t...  Read More

In 2003 the Christian band “Casting Crowns” released the hit single, “If We Are The Body”. The song tells a story and asks an important series of questions in light of 1st Corinthians chapter 12. The story begins with that of a lonely woman fading into the faces of a church service. Perhaps she made her way to church reluctantly, carrying the baggage of her past, weighed down with all of the hurt ...  Read More

Urgency is a thing. Every time my daughters leave to go back to college, I am reminded of how fast time passes. I am now in my early 50s; I am an “empty nester.” When I see all of the many kids running around our church campuses, it causes the memories to flood back into my mind. It seems like yesterday that my three kids were that small. Now, I may seem as if I am depressed over this reality, but...  Read More

Main Point and Overview:  You are needed. The fact is that the church is all about “participation over performance.” It is the people who do the work through the Spirit of God speaking the Word of God (Romans 10:14). In the American church, so many people come to receive, but few come to give. That was the farthest thing from the 1st century church. In fact, both Paul and Peter taught that every p...  Read More

This week has not been a favorite of mine. So far, three days of it have been spent mostly horizontal on the couch; sipping hot tea, missing work, canceling plans, and feeling so ineffective and powerless for the Kingdom of God. But, at the same time it’s been the most exciting week. No, being sick is not exciting, but what a joy it’s been reading through each devotion and taking a deep dive with ...  Read More

“And lead us not into temptation.” In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus shows us how to pray. Temptation is something every one of us faces, multiple times throughout the course of the day. As you pray, pray for discernment and wisdom when you face temptation, and the strength to not allow yourself to give into it. We will fail if we rely on ourselves. It is only through the Holy Spirit that we can walk a...  Read More

Colossians 3:13“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” I think I speak for us all when I say we are beyond thankful that God forgave us of our sins when we called upon Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior! We are so quick to speak about God’s forgiveness for us, but we struggle with forgiving those who have wrong...  Read More

This week we have been intentionally focusing and mediating on The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. My hope for you as you read these devotionals, is that you are truly taking the time to examine your heart and allow God to work in a special way.   Today, allow me to direct your thoughts to the word “provision”. Provision, according to the Oxford Dictionary, “the action of providing or supplying s...  Read More

"Your kingdom come...Your will be done..." 1.) Pray the Word. “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:7.)How do we know Gods will? How can we see the direction of the kingdom to come if we do not see what God says about it in his Word? God’s “will” is not some abstract idea, but it’s clearly defined in his Word. Therefore, we s...  Read More

Notice how worship comes before anything else in the Lord’s Prayer. Am I saying that every time you pray, you need to worship God before you say anything else to him? No...but it is really important to create a culture of worship within your heart. When Tami and I raised our three kids, we would have family devotions 2-3 times a week. When it came time to pray, I always had each of them thank and ...  Read More

Main Point and Overview:   “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven,hallowed be your name,your kingdom come,your will be done,on earth as it is in heaven.Give us today our daily bread.And forgive us our debts,as we also have forgiven our debtors.And lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from the evil one.” Matthew 6:9-13 gives us a practical example of how each one of us sh...  Read More

Reaching into the mailbox today I wondered if it would be the usual direct mail pieces offering coupons for pizza, carpet cleaning specials, or an envelope marked “urgent” only to find a marketing gimmick inside. But today was different. There wasn’t just one, but two envelopes with a personal touch. With a smile on my face and pep in my step, I was eager to get inside and unveil the contents. The...  Read More

We often will find ourselves in a quandary because of our perceived lack of time. Our schedules are so busy that we barely have time to eat. Even meals have been reduced to “instant breakfast” or “minute rice.” I’ve had the opportunity to live in Europe several times. One of the biggest cultural hurdles to jump was getting used to “European time.” This has nothing to do with time zones, but at the...  Read More

Matthew 6:5-15“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you p...  Read More

Contrary to popular belief, becoming a Christian does not make one’s life any easier—in fact I would say it becomes more difficult. Of course, trying to let go of certain people, places, and things are certainly challenging, I don’t want to make light of how difficult that may be. However, the part where rubber meets the road is spiritual growth. It is bigger than those people, places, or things y...  Read More

Luke 11:5-10 “Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, e...  Read More

One of the biggest mistakes that we make is when we “connect” prayer to our conversations as a “last resort” instead of seeing it as the only true source of power in our lives. We don’t know what else to say when someone is going through a tragedy, so we say that we will pray for them. We don’t have any other options when someone is sick, so we reluctantly promise (and many times fail to fulfill) ...  Read More

Main Point and Overview:  What is unique about our “journey of faith” is that it assumes that there will be “bumps and bruises” along the way. If fact, it’s a challenging process. We can all look back to the past, and in most cases, the person that we are today is vastly different. Change is hard. It will not happen apart from the intervention of our gracious God. When the disciples of Jesus asked...  Read More

Waiting, hoping, anticipating. I doubt that there is a day that goes by where those actions are absent from our thoughts. Waiting is often hard and can be overwhelming at times. Waiting to get pregnant, waiting for that next paycheck, waiting for that loved one to make a turnaround in their life. We wait with hope. We eagerly wait with excitement anticipating the good of that “something” happening...  Read More

We all go through life meeting many people who intersect our lives in an impactful way. Many remain acquaintances, either through proximity or personality. Some become friends, even close friends. Those with whom you interact on some kind of regular and cordial basis. My mother had quite a list of friends that fell into this category. Even if she moved away, which happened quite often being a mili...  Read More

As children we all had moments, especially around Christmas, when we knew what we wanted, maybe it was the hottest toy on the market or something all of our friends had first. Later to open your gifts and fall in love with something you didn't expect to get. As adults we wish and dream for better jobs, a better car, a bigger house! No matter what it is, our flesh wants more and bigger. As the worl...  Read More

"All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had." Acts 4:32This sense of unity and selflessness is often a challenge in our society today—a society that places more value on personal achievement and individual success, than working together in unity. I could write on and on about the dangers of those thi...  Read More

The commotion began to grow, the noise started to stir, a man that they had all walked by at the gate was now walking, jumping, and shouting praise to God! The actions of Peter and John, led to an opportunity to preach Christ. Repentance and belief filled the colonnade. Over five thousand had now come to faith in the risen Christ. In marched the disturbed religious leaders who felt threatened. So ...  Read More

How does a person lose weight? How does a team win a championship? How does a business grow their influence? How does a relationship stay connected? How does a Christian stay consistently committed to Christ? We are all looking for the “magic formula” or the “blueprint for success.” There is one emphatic characteristic of success...endurance.Success doesn’t happen overnight. It takes hard and comm...  Read More

Main Point and Overview:  Worship is a lifestyle. It is developed as your appetites are adjusted away from the world and to the Savior. For the 1st century church, they were facing a ton of pressure from all angles. The writer of Hebrews understood this, so he gave these young believers an intentional blueprint for success. He wanted them to realize that they should never go back to their past lif...  Read More

As I warm up my fingers and get ready to type, my eyes are fixed on the spot in the sky where the sun is straining to illuminate the day. The current temperature is 1 degree and there is a beautifully eerie haze with an occasional flash of snow dust swirling about.  I feel like I’m in a scene from Frozen, which is a Disney favorite of several of my granddaughters.  In the background, the chatter o...  Read More

We all have been in a spot when a child asks the world's most famous question “Why”? Proceeded by once again “Why”? Which then triggers a whole rabbit train of whys and so on, to the point we don't have the answer they are looking for. In that moment we most likely throw out some crazy answer that then stops them from asking more questions!Ecclesiastes 5:2  “Do not be quick with your mouth, do not...  Read More

One of the more gratifying aspects of any job is having purpose. It is a motivator. For me, that was never truer than being in the military. The vast majority of the day-to-day was making sure we were ready for the next mission. There were exercises routinely, to make sure we knew how to do our job and how it applied to the mission. As a missileer every alert was the real deal. Our mission was to ...  Read More

 John 21:20-22 "Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?” When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.”  In our modern world, distractions...  Read More

Back to the old ways it seemed… A few ordinary fishermen trying to make the living they were raised to. Although, for the past few years’ things had looked a little different, their pursuits had changed. These men who spent most of their lives listening to the sounds of the sea, smelling the salty air, and standing more firmly on a rocking boat than they could on solid ground, found themselves on ...  Read More