Category Archives: Uncategorized

John Maxwell says 3 things drive self-preservation …1.  Fear of change.  Change is inevitable.   It can drive us forward or freeze us in our tracks.2.  No desire to grow.  If you are a leader, it becomes easy to cling to position and not merit.  Learning new skills and breaking up our routine is hard.3.  LossContinueContinue reading “The drive for self-preservaton”

Job lost everything in life,and then got everything back. The latter part was more blessed than the former. Job 42:12-17Good grieving is not only letting go but somehow letting it bless us. Job did that.What Job grieved was over. He didn’t get it back. We cannot get back what we grieve. It is over, done,ContinueContinue reading “faith to keep looking ahead”

Part of the message of God's Kingdom is learning to lament.  We actually enlarge our soul through grieving and loss.  I have been reading I and II Samuel.  When King Saul and his son Jonathan, David's best friend, were killed in battle, David wrote a lament.  He even ordered that the men of Judah beContinueContinue reading “The Kingdom and the Lament”

I am reading I and II Samuel.  I always like David at first.  I love it when he kills Goliath and the troops are heading home. … I Samuel 18.  "When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul withContinueContinue reading “King Saul and David … the beginning of the end”

You want to be the real you?  Me, too.  Here are two thoughts to etch into your head and heart… 1.  "Be real. Try to do what you say, say what you mean, and be what you seem."– Marian Wright Edelman (1939 – )American activistfounder of the Children’s Defense Fund  2.  "Do not think ofContinueContinue reading “Be who you are”

Two examples from Jesus…1.  As he approached Jerusalem near the end of his ministry and saw the city, Jesus wept over it and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace — but now it is hidden from your eyes."  Luke 19:41.  The word used to describeContinueContinue reading “Real, gut-wrenching emotion”

I am coaching 8 Vineyard pastors.  I love to hear the heart of these guys, listening to their dreams, goals and desires.  Most of them are doing fairly well.  As I spend more and more time with them, in person and on the phone, here's what I realize it takes to make it for the long haulContinueContinue reading “Here’s what it takes to pastor”

  About 20 years ago I came across the prayer that John Stott prayers every morning at 5am.[Stott is one of the great evangelical voices of of the 20th century and a fine Anglican scholar.  In my 20s and 30s, I was more influenced by many of his books than any other evangelical author.]  IContinueContinue reading “My favorite morning prayer”