Continue reading »]]> This was a recent interview with Pastor Rick Warren.   I really thought he nailed most of this interview.  They covered a ton of issues: politics, healthcare, Mormonism, same-sex marriage, salvation, physical fitness, etc.

I’d love to get your reactions to the interview.  Where did he get it right?  Where do you disagree?  Why does it matter?

Continue reading »]]>

We’ve all got people we call ‘friends’. Maybe even people we call ‘best friends’. But I wonder if our definition of friend is the same as the Bible’s? Check out this one verse from Proverbs on the subject:

• One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24 NIV)
• A man of too many friends comes to ruin, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. (Proverbs 18:24 NASB)
• There are “friends” who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother. (Proverbs 18:24 NLT)
• Friends come and friends go, but a true friend sticks by you like family. (Proverbs 18:24 MSG)
• Friends can destroy one another,but a loving friend can stick closer than family. (Proverbs 18:24 GWT)

So many variations on this one verse! But the one constant is the ending: true friends are always there for you. True friends have your back. True friends are closer than family.

Do you have a friend like that? Give him or her a call and say THANKS!

For some more thoughts on friends, here are a couple of verses to consider:

• A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity. (Proverbs 17:17 NIV)
• Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. (Proverbs 27:6 NASB)

Continue reading »]]> Here is an 82 word summary of Miller’s A Praying Life.

We don’t need a praying life because that is our duty. That would wear thin quickly. We need time to be with our Father every day because every day our hearts and the hearts of those around us are overgrown with weeds. We need to reflect on our lives and engage God with the condition of our souls and the souls he has entrusted to our care or put in our paths. In a fallen world, these things do not come automatically.

May your time with your heavenly Father be engaging, healing, worshipful, and expectant.  Enjoy Him as the only thing truly worth everything!

Continue reading »]]> In A Praying Life, Paul Miller explores two common ways we go wrong when it comes to hearing God’s voice in our life and how we can correctly discern when God is speaking to us.

1. “Word Only”—Going Wrong by Not Listening. If we focus exclusively on God’s written Word when looking for God’s activity in our lives but don’t watch and pray, we’ll miss the unfolding story of his work.
2. “Spirit Only”—Going Wrong by Elevating Human Intuition.  Unless Scripture guards and directs our intuitions, we can easily run amok and baptize our selfish desires with religious language (“God told me to marry her . . .”).

Spirit Only people, on the right side of the chart, can separate the activity of listening to God from obedience to God’s Word. Under the cover of “being led by the Spirit,” they can easily do what they want. What they “hear” from God might be masking their self-will. This is emotionalism (a form of Romanticism), which makes feelings absolute.

Word Only people can also separate hearing and obedience by focusing on obedience and ignoring a life of listening and repentance. Listening to and obeying God are so intertwined in biblical thought that in the Hebrew they are one word, shamar. Under the cover of being obedient to the Word, Word Only folks can be rigid. We need to guard against rationalism as much as we need to guard against emotionalism.

We need the sharp-edged, absolute character of the Word and the intuitive, personal leading of the Spirit. The Word provides the structure, the vocabulary. The Spirit personalizes it to our life. Keeping the Word and the Spirit together guards us from the danger of God-talk becoming a cover for our own desires and the danger of lives isolated from God.

Continue reading »]]> Ouch…this quote from A Praying Life might hurt a little.  It is short, so read it a couple of times.

“I’ll keep you in my prayers” is the easiest way to back away politely. Roughly translated it means, “I have every intention of praying for you, but because I’ve not written it down, it is likely I will never pray for it. But I say it because at this moment I do care, and it feels awkward to say nothing.”

Allow me to encourage you to do something totally practical:  Pray for people.  Do it right then.  Don’t wait.  Let them hear that you care for them in that moment by hearing you pray for them in that moment.

Continue reading »]]> More from A Praying Life.  There is so much packed in here that I would encourage you to read it twice.  How do we live and pray in light of God’s Upper Story while we are living life in our Lower story?  We need to look for Him, wait for Him, and expect to find Him!

When God seems silent and our prayers go unanswered, the overwhelming temptation is to leave the story—to walk out of the desert and attempt to create a normal life. But when we persist in a spiritual vacuum, when we hang in there during ambiguity, we get to know God. In fact, that is how intimacy grows in all close relationships.

To live in our Father’s story, remember these three things:

1. Don’t demand that the story go your way. (In other words, surrender completely.)
2. Look for the Storyteller. Look for his hand, and then pray in light of what you are seeing. (In other words, develop an eye for Jesus.)
3. Stay in the story. Don’t shut down when it goes the wrong way.

To see the Storyteller we need to slow down our interior life and watch. We need to be imbedded in the Word to experience the Storyteller’s mind and pick up the cadence of his voice. We need to be alert for the story, for the Storyteller’s voice speaking into the details of our lives.

As we wait and pray, God weaves his story and creates a wonder. Instead of drifting between comedy (denial) and tragedy (reality), we have a relationship with the living God, who is intimately involved with the details of our worlds. We are learning to watch for the story to unfold, to wait for the wonder.

Now, on a lighter note, I just thought this was funny…

Continue reading »]]> I’ve experienced my fair share of grumbling, disagreements, and disunity…three things that are profoundly ugly to the Lord.

If you find yourself in such a situation, I commend these verses from Proverbs to you.  They speak to the attitudes and actions that promote these things, as well as those that promote unity.

May God use His Word as a mirror to those that dare to read these verses.  Will you have the courage to respond to what you see?

The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice. (Proverbs 12:15 NIV)

Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who take advice. (Proverbs 13:10 NIV)

There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death. (Proverbs 14:12 NIV)

The simple believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps. (Proverbs 14:15 NIV)

All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord. (Proverbs 16:2 NIV)

A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends. (Proverbs 16:28 NIV)

Whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. (Proverbs 17:9 NIV)

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. (Proverbs 18:2 NIV)

In a lawsuit the first to speak seems right, until someone comes forward and cross-examines. (Proverbs 18:17 NIV)

Continue reading »]]> Here’s another example. Imagine if your day looked like this:

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:8 NLT)

What do you spend your time thinking about? Things that make your mind look up to God, or things that keep you firmly entrenched in the Lower Story? Do you dwell on the negative or choose to keep your mind on all the good that is around you? Do you only see ugly, or do you intentionally focus on the beautiful things and people all around you?

Spend your day today thinking about things that are worthy of praise!

Continue reading »]]> The Christian life is not easy, but it can be simple.  It is sure to be hard, but it doesn’t have to be complicated.

Here is another ‘easy’ example of how to live the life:

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:1-6 (NASB)

OK, just imagine it.  Humility.  Gentleness.  Patience.  Unity.  Peace.

What if we really lived like that?  Would it be easy?  No, but it sure would be simple!

Continue reading »]]> The Christian life is not easy, but it can be simple.  It is sure to be hard, but it doesn’t have to be complicated.

So many people spend so much time trying to figure out what to do with their Christian lives.  However, we could turn to 1000 places in Scripture and find simple, straightforward descriptions of what our lives should look like.  It may be difficult to live out what we read in Scripture, and we cannot do it without God’s help.  But let’s not kid ourselves…it isn’t complicated!

So, I thought I’d take a few posts to point out some of these simple descriptions.  Imagine if your life looked like this:

Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them.

Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good.

Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.

Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.

Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.

When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality. Romans 12:9-13 (NLT)

Which of these simple instructions comes easiest to you?  Praise Him for that!  Loving people is not difficult for me…it is both simple and easy!  Thank you for that!

Which is most difficult?  Ask Him to transform your heart to make it easier!  Being patient in trouble is difficult for me…it is simple for me to say, but hard for me to do.  God, help me to be prayerfully patient!