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August 9, 2012 in Humor with 10 Comments

Four Christians

This is the story of four Christians whose names were everybody, somebody, anybody, and nobody.

The house was in ruins and in need of renovation and repair. Everybody was asked to count the cost, deny themselves, put their hands to the plow and rebuild.

Everybody was asked to participate and do their part.

Everybody was sure that somebody would do it. Now anybody could have done it . . . but the person that ended up doing it was nobody.

Everybody then blamed somebody when nobody did what anybody could have done.

Then there was the need for someone to check on the progress of the rebuilding project. And somebody was asked. Continue Reading…

August 8, 2012 in Spirituality with 13 Comments

Do You Know Where You’re Headed?

Yesterday, I drove to an appointment. On the way there, I got stuck in traffic. The road I was on normally flows fine. But it was backed up for some reason.

The three cars ahead of me took a left-hand turn and went down a different road. One I’ve never been on before. I assumed it was a detour and these three people knew how to short-circuit the traffic to get on the main street where I was headed.

Well, after following them for a whole 5 minutes, they each broke in different directions. Each car ended up in different parking lots in the same neighborhood. Hmmm . . .

After about 10 minutes of getting lost in a maze of cul-de-sacs and dead ends, I found my way back to the very road I was stuck on. The traffic was gone this time (15 minutes later).

One of my spiritual disciplines is to ask the Lord why something out-of-the-ordinary happens . . . as I believe my “steps are ordered” and everything happens for a reason (Psalm 37:23). Continue Reading…

August 7, 2012 in Spirituality with 12 Comments

Standing on a New Frontier

Today we stand on the edge of a new frontier—one of exploration, not fortification. One of discovery, not contentment. In this new frontier, we will navigate the unchartered waters of Jesus Christ, our all-sufficient Lord.

There is so much more of Christ to sail than we could ever imagine. But if the truth be told, we have been handed a shrink-wrapped Jesus.

Christ has become our once-a-week Mascot. We rally around Him on Sunday mornings, selfishly reaching for all we can get from Him—goodies and gifts, all for us. Then we push Him off to the sidelines the rest of the week.

But the game has never been about us; it’s always been about Him.

The gospel that’s so often preached today lacks a revelation of Jesus Christ. The contemporary gospel boils down to a fire insurance policy, a Santa Claus God, or a performance-based religion. As long as we stay on that plane, we’ll never see or comprehend the staggering enormity of our Lord.

Paul of Tarsus was a man who caught a glimpse of the excellencies of Jesus Christ. He preached such a high gospel that it turned illiterate, immoral pagans into full-pledged followers of Jesus who learned to live in authentic community—all in just a few months.  Continue Reading…

August 6, 2012 in Writing with 12 Comments

10 Twitter Mistakes That Make You Look Clueless

In 2009, I joined the Twitterverse. And when I did, I didn’t have a clue. I didn’t know beans from peas about how to use the tool.

I learned by imitation. I watched three or four people who used Twitter — all of whom were fellow authors — and I followed their example.

What I didn’t realize is that they didn’t have much of a clue either.

I later discovered that there is such a thing as “Twitter etiquette.”

One person in particular emailed me privately. In a gracious but straight-forward way, he pointed out my Twitter transgressions. (He had a lot of class to approach me the way he did, and I was grateful.)

So in the spirit of “do unto others,” I’m writing this post to pass on what I’ve learned. Some of these things are mistakes I’ve made myself. Others are things I intuitively knew were bad practices when I first started out, but I keep seeing people practice them.

I’m no expert on Twitter (I don’t know if such people exist), but I can pass on what I’ve learned and have observed.

As I’ve previously pointed out, Twitter is a great ministry tool. (See Twitter vs. Facebook: Reflections, Comparisons, and Ministry Perspective.)

But the fact is, many Christian authors and bloggers are guilty of some of these same mistakes. So if you — or others you know — practice these things, feel free to share this post with them. Hopefully, they will be as grateful as I was. Continue Reading…

August 3, 2012 in Humor with 10 Comments

I Might Have Been Wrong About Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh

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Back in April, I wrote a blog post exploring the identity of Paul’s thorn in the flesh.

The post was read by many and two New Testament scholars sent me private emails telling me that they found my interpretation to be “very reasonable.”

Sometime later, however, one of my readers took my entire thesis to task with a piece of incontrovertible evidence — an actual photograph that captures “the thorn.”

Apologies to Mr. Bob for wrongly assigning his identity to someone else.

Paul's Thorn in the Flesh

August 2, 2012 in Rethinking with 15 Comments

The Dissenters

 ”O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you . . .”

~ Matthew 23:37

I want to talk about dissenters today. Those who disagree with and challenge the status quo.

The word “dissenter” comes from the Latin dissentire, which means to disagree.

In the 17th century, those who broke away from the established Church were called the Dissenters. There were both Catholic and Protestant Dissenters.

Throughout history, there have been two main types of dissenters. I call them . . .

1) The disgruntled dissenters. These are angry, bitter, disgruntled people with their own personal agendas. Some of them aren’t mentally stable, being delusional or egomaniacle. They live their whole lives on the fringe, not because of their wisdom or prophetic insight, but because they’re just fringe personalities. These people are easily dismissed because they usually mix their dissent with “bizzaro,” even if they happen to stumble on some things that are based in reality. Think Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory.

2) The sober-minded dissenters. These are stable people with good judgment and extraordinary prophetic insight. They have great wisdom that exceeds their peers and they are able to predict outcomes. They may not be gifted in all areas (in fact, they are usually less gifted in many areas). But when it comes to discerning roots and offering solutions, they excel. Because of this, they are often regarded as radicals.

In 1965, Under Secretary of State George Ball broke with the conventional wisdom and all the other advisers to President Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ).

A lone voice, Ball said to Johnson,

“Look, you’re going to lose in Vietnam. You’re going to end up with a protracted war that will divide America. At the end of three or four or five years, you’re going to be in Vietnam with 500,000 American troops and you’re not going to accomplish your political objective.”

Ball advised Johnson to walk away from the war and let the government of South Vietnam fall. Continue Reading…

August 1, 2012 in Spirituality with 10 Comments

His Time

We live in a day when what sells best in the Christian world are books, sermons, and television programs that are aimed directly at you — This Is Your Day, You Are the Reason for the Season, Become a Better You, It’s Your Time, The Me I Want to Be, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, and similar titles orbiting around the Youniverse.

It’s time to take all the arrows that point to you and bend them back to our Lord.

Behold the ill-starred Nazarene who went about “doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.”

Behold the artisan from Galilee, the one who called Himself the “Son of Man” (which means “son of Adam” — “the human being”).

Watch Him as He is taken before Rome’s delegates in the city of Jerusalem. See Him standing before Pilate — rejected, dejected, bludgeoned, beaten, spat upon. Behold Him who created the heavens, the Lord of the universe, suffering the most horrific, gruesome form of torture that was ever invented by the human imagination.

Observe Him hanging on a wooden stake, dying a slow, hideous death, covered with blood — naked, mocked, and shamed. The Messiah has become a public spectacle that elicits the spinechilling, gleeful laughter of satan himself.

Watch death, the child of sin, emerge from the pit. With open arms, it darkens the wood of the cross and takes the Prince of heaven into its silent, hopeless domain.

The powers of Rome may have defeated the suffering artisan two thousand years ago, but in the end, He shall triumph. Christ shall subdue all things and put them under His feet, for upon that bloody hill, Jesus of Nazareth — the spotless, sinless man — defeated the powers of darkness and won for Himself the keys of death, hell, and the grave. Continue Reading…

July 31, 2012 in Spirituality with 3 Comments

A Letter That Dropped Out of Heaven

The entire Bible is fully inspired, but there are two letters that seem to have dropped straight out of heaven.

They are Ephesians and Colossians. High water marks in the written Word of God.

It is for this reason that I’ve often ministered out of these two letters.

A 6-part series that I delivered several years ago has been uploaded to the podcast. It takes a narrative approach to Paul’s amazing letter to the Colossians. The parts are as follows:

Encountering Christ in Colossians: Part I – the historical background of the letter.

Encountering Christ in Colossians: Part II – the main points of the letter with some practicals sprinkled in.

Encountering Christ in Colossians: Part III – the big picture of Colossians 1 and 2.

Encountering Christ in Colossians: Part IV – Colossians 1:24-29 expounded.

Encountering Christ in Colossians: Part V – Colossians 3 to the beginning of 4 expounded.

Epic Jesus: The Christ You Never Knew – Colossians 1:15-22 unveiled.

You can freely hear these messages via iTunes, Podbean, or RSS below.

Note of Interest: I delivered most of these messages while I was writing Jesus Manifesto. And I sampled one of the more unique chapters from that book to the audience beforehand. You’ll hear it in one of the audios.

Plans are being laid for more exciting episodes for the podcast. Subscribe so you don’t miss any.

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July 30, 2012 in Spirituality with 54 Comments

Why I’m a Christian: 12 Reasons

In 1927, the famed British philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote an essay entitled, “Why I Am Not a Christian.”

Russell’s essay inspired the title of this post.

By “Christian,” I mean someone who has trusted their life to Jesus Christ as Crucified Savior and Resurrected Lord and seeks to follow Him each day. (I’m keenly aware that the term “Christian” has been hijacked to mean different things, hence the need to define.)

Three things to keep in mind about this list:

1) This isn’t a list of theological reasons (e.g., God chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world and the Holy Spirit revealed Christ to my heart).

2) This isn’t a list of why I am indebted to Jesus (He owns me; He bought me with His blood; He died for my sins, etc.) Instead, they are intellectual/emotional/experiential reasons why I trust in and follow Jesus.

3) This isn’t an exhaustive list (I can certainly list more reasons), and it doesn’t reflect any particular order or priority.

At the end of the list, I have a question for readers who aren’t following Jesus at the present time. And I’m really looking forward to hearing what they have to say.

So share this post via Facebook and Twitter using the links/buttons below. Continue Reading…

July 27, 2012 in Reviews with 9 Comments

The Inspiring Power of Uncommon Art

Click here to watch/listen. Note: The link does not work on some smart phones. So watch on your computer. It’s amazing and well worth your 3 minutes.

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P.S. The signed/dedicated hardcover discount is still on.

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