BORN FOR THE STORM Are you looking for a boat to go fishing? I suggest you get one that can withstand a storm. Do your research to see if it was made to resist High Winds and rough Waters. It needs to be constructed strong enough to withstand the pressures and dangers of the storm. In this life that God has placed us in, he promised us that there w…

DO YOU KNOW JESUS IN THE PRESENT? It's a simple question that I am asking today, and by doing so, I am bringing our attention to what it means to walk in the light as he is in the light. When we learn the practice of being in his presence as a daily habit, we know what it means to know Jesus in this present time. Too many Christians know the Jesus …

HEAVENLY GOLD, DISCOVERED BY THOSE WHO SEEK HIS FACE The revelation of Jesus Christ and what he has done for us and through us is the greatest discovery you will ever dig out of the Scriptures. That revelation does not come from the wisdom or the intelligence of human thinking; it comes from the revelation of the Holy Spirit to our spirit. Heavenly…

AT EVERY CHALLENGE, GOD CHALLENGES, THE CHALLENGER-WE WIN BY DEFAULT The key ingredient in living a life of faith is exercising the muscle called obedience to the word of God that has been revealed to you. The revelation of the word of God is different than the information in the Bible. The scriptures tell us that faith comes by hearing and hearing…

WHAT LABEL DO YOU LIVE UNDER? What's wrong with this picture? The Protestant Reformation happened around 1500 years ago. It was a separation from the Catholic Church based on Martin Luther's revelation that the "just shall live by faith" and not by the rule of a church or under the control of a pope. Today, 30,000+ different labels of groups of peo…

POCKETS OF WISDOM AND REVELATION Why do some people in a large or small gathering who are listening to the word of God not hear the same thing? After a life of pastoring multiple churches, it's still beyond frustrating that someone can sit in the same congregation, hear the same message, and miss the point completely. I conclude that the problem is…

WHAT'S NEXT FOR US IN THE BODY OF CHRIST? HERE'S A FLASH FOR YOU! You can expect change. It is part of God's nature that he injected into everything he created. If it's not growing, it's dying. You can see that principle working in your garden or the landscape around your house. What isn't rooted in healthy soil is on the way to being a dead plant.…

NOW THAT YOU HAVE ASK HIM-DO YOU RECOGNIZE THE ANSWER? The scriptures clearly tell us that if we ask anything in prayer believing, we shall receive it. That being true because the Scriptures do not lie, how many times can we ask for the same thing without being in unbelief? I know that we always have the illustration of the woman who was dealing wi…

GOD DOES NOT TEMPT ANYONE The original sin of Adam and Eve seems to set a standard for others to follow. Two things stand out that have been identifiable throughout history. Number one, I am a victim. Number two, it wasn't my fault it was yours. Listen to Adam as God is confronting him in the garden. "He said, "This woman you gave me, she caused me…

I WILL WATCH OVER WHAT I HAVE PLANTED As I was preparing myself for my night, watch and a good nights sleep, I heard the voice of the Lord that said,” I will watch over what I have planted.” Then I realized that the spirit of God was not talking about himself, he was talking about me. An uncomfortable portion of the Christian community depends on G…

WE CAME FROM ABOVE, AND CHRIST TOOK US HOME If I wanted to capture the mission of Jesus to earth in simple terms, I would call it. Gods rescue mission. The fathers plan from the beginning was to have created sons and daughters in his image. I like to refer to them as gods imagers. Because Janice is 126 tells us that's what God intended when he crea…

JESUS IS NOT THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD-YOU ARE As shocking as that may sound to the ear of the religious Christian, in all reality, it's true. When God said to the sons of God around him at the time, let us make man in our image, and let him have dominion multiply and fill the whole earth. It could only mean one thing: we are created with God's DNA in…

WHY THE APOSTLE PAUL DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW ANYONE AFTER THE FLESH? Some would consider Paul's statement to be one of a hermit, or at best, a mystic who wanted to live in a cave. However, both of those thoughts are not true because Paul knew what it would take to make the bridge between Jesus, the man, and Jesus, the Christ, the son of God. In the boo…

THE UNIVERSITY OF ANGELS-AND EVERYONE IS A PROFESSOR I love Angels. As a matter of fact, I love everything that has to do with God's world. I love angels because God loves angels. I love angels because they have been created by the same God who created me. That makes us a unique family because we have the same father. However, I am also aware that …

IN THE STORM HOLD TIGHT TO THE PROMISES I love the sunshine and hate the rain. Whoa, what am I saying I live in the north west where we have four seasons in the year. We have two days of spring four days of summer and attempt at a decent fall in a long, dark winter. Well, of course I'm exaggerating but not much. We used to tell everyone it rained a…

SEALED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT UNTIL WE EXPERIENCE COMPLETE FREEDOM How much of the word of God do we, as believers, really believe? I'm speaking about the general body, including myself, at times, as I have learned to walk by faith and not by sight. Most of what we know comes from our mentors, those who raised us in the gospel. Like a natural family, t…

OPEN DOORS, OPEN HEAVENS The 10th chapter of John is an amazing revelation of Jesus as the door to eternity and heaven's glory. The Passion Bible says it this way in the ninth verse. (Jesus said) I am the gateway; to enter through me is to experience life, freedom, and satisfaction. Nicodemus came to Jesus in the dark of night because of his reputa…

KEEP GOD ON THE THRONE AND JESUS AS THE DOOR How far can we go with the revelation and insight that we get from dreams or prophetic words that we receive from the Lord? What is the rule of thumb, as they say, to judge whether we are hearing from God or having a vain imagination? Most often, someone will answer that question with this statement. If …

IDENTIFY THE THIEF AND GET IT ALL BACK Among the many lessons I've learned while walking with Christ is that this experience is multifaceted. Nothing in the spiritual world is built or works on a set of principles you can carry in your notebook and pull out when needed. The Christian Life and the mysteries of this beautiful, supernatural world are …

HAVING A HEAVENLY CONVERSATION WITH JESUS Some years ago, while traveling through the East Coast in ministry, we visited Williamsburg, Virginia. Williamsburg is one of our history's essential places where our forefathers gathered and formed our early America. They have replicated or restored the old town to look like it did in the 1700s. All of the…

DO YOU TRUST HOLY SPIRIT AS MUCH AS GPS? Guidance is the main issue of life. From our earliest memories, someone is trying to tell us where to go and what to do. Obviously, in a well-structured home that God placed you in, your mother and father are the first instructors. They tell me that young children learn what they will do 95% of the time in t…

YOU DON'T DRINK POND WATER Jesus said, If you drink from Jacobs well, you'll be thirsty again, but if anyone drinks the living water I give them, they will never be thirsty again. For when you drink the water I give you, it becomes a gushing fountain of the Holy Spirit, flooding you with endless life! ( John 4:14) p/b This may shock you when I say …

AND IT CAME TO PASS-THE SEASONS IN OUR LIVES Happy New Year, everyone. Here we are in 2024, and we have no idea how we got here. It seems just like yesterday when much of the church was all concerned about Y2K and the end of things. The hotels were all sold out in and around Jerusalem, expecting Jesus to break through the Eastern gate. The secular …

THE ALTERNATE WORLD WHERE YOUR SPIRIT DWELLS? Forty-five years ago, I brought my young family to a small farming community 60 miles north of Seattle to pastor a fledgling church. Our town is in a valley nourished for centuries by river water overflowing and depositing an excellent rich soil. 95% of our industry is farming. We grow a wide variety of…

SANTA CLAUSE VS SANTA JESUS- WILL THE REAL SANTA PLEASE STAND HOW DO WE TELL THE REAL SANTA? ( Santa= righteous and holy) Both Santas are jolly. Both Santas love children. Both Santas give good gifts. Both Santas can fly. Both Santas have an expected return. Both Santas have people looking for their appearing. Both Santas have a massive group of se…

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGED When you look back on your personal life and our national life, you recognize a number of nights that we could call "our night before" when everything changed. There's an old familiar statement we often make when we say, "It's always darkest before the dawn." What we mean by that is that before a miracl…

JESUS CAME TO THE WHOLE WORLD AND FOUND ONE OUTCAST WOMAN We just sailed through another Christmas season, celebrating the coming of the savior of the world as a baby in the manger. But there is a reason why the Bible does not record the adolescent years of Jesus, except for one episode, when he was 12 in the temple. We jump from that description o…

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGED When you look back on your personal life and our national life, you recognize a number of nights that we could call "our night before" when everything changed. There's an old familiar statement we often make when we say, "It's always darkest before the dawn." What we mean by that is that before a miracl…

THE DOUBLE STANDARD-DID CHRIST COME IN THE FLESH? Fifty years after Christ's ascension, the apostle John set pen to paper and gave us the first, second, and third John in the Scriptures. This is the same disciple who leaned on Jesus's breast during the Last Supper. This is the one they could not kill, so they put him on the Isle of Patmos, where he…

THE ORIGINAL PROBLEM SOLVER What was the original sin that separated humanity from fellowship with their creator? Was it, not the fact that Adam and Eve stepped away from the rules of life that God had set for them? The key to harmony and peace in the heavenly kingdom and in the world that Adam lived in was obedience to the rules of life. Those rul…

WISDOM GIVES LIFE It's the first day of a new week, and we look forward to the challenging yet adventurous days ahead of us. Because life is not always guaranteed to work out the way you thought it would, we trust the Lord to guide us through the pitfalls and the snares that it may offer. To do that, we prepare ourselves by studying and meditating …

THE KEY TO ETERNAL JOY We used to sing a song in the church: "It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, and the half has never yet been told." And another song was: "Joy bells, ringing in my heart, Joy bells, ringing in my heart, Take the savior here below with you everywhere you go, You will have the joy-bells ringing in your heart," Joy and a life…

WE CAN WALK ON WATER IF WE KNOW WHO IS CALLING US TO COME Among the many questions that I have been asking as a pastor is the one concerning the will of God for their personal life. "Pastor, do you think it would be God's will that I move to Cincinnati?" "Pastor, should I Mary Jane? Is that the woman that God has given me?" The desire to know that …

RESTORATION-HOW FAR DOES IT GO? I'm sure you've heard the gospel song pleading with God, asking if he could just make it in. Listening to it, we get the picture of someone diving through the gate of heaven, catching their coat tail as it closes. A person with that in their thinking lives a life of high anxiety, hoping and wishing that somehow God w…

A LIVING PICTURE OF JESUS CHRIST OUR RISEN LORD AND SAVIOR So you want to see Jesus in the full manifestation of his glory? Then let's take a look at him through the eyes of John the revelator after the resurrection and Christ ascension to the father. After all, the last book in the Bible, the vision that John witnessed on the isle of Patmos, is ca…

WHO ARE YOU COMPLETING ON THIS JOURNEY OF FAITH? Have you ever considered the cloud of witnesses mentioned in Hebrews chapters 11 and 12 as personal in your walk of faith? In Hebrews 11, we have been given a list of men and women in the old covenant who walk by faith and hope in the future of God's promises. They lived in hope without receiving the…

THE CHRISTMAS CACTUS Hallelujah, we made it through Thanksgiving. Now, the next big hurdle to jump is the Christmas season. Everyone you know faces this season differently. Some great planners purchase gifts long before the season comes and stash them away for that big day. My grandmother was like that. She had a couch in her front room with a comp…

THE PROPHETIC DREAM-HOW DOES IT WORK? If your spiritual antennas are up, you will have noticed the rise of the mystic ministry in the nations of the world. For some believers, this would be brand new because of the need for teaching or revelation in the body of Christ at large. However, according to the definition of the word, the shocking reality …

UPON THIS ROCK, WE BUILD While listening to the recounting of our Thanksgiving memorial as a nation, these few thoughts dropped in my spirit that I want to share today about the founding of this great nation we live in. As our forefathers came to this land, several major miracles made the difference between success and failure. First, we are the on…

THE POWER AND PURPOSE OF A THANKFUL HEART Have you ever considered the incredible wonder of the world's great orchestras when they gather fifty musicians and make music together? We call it music because it is coordinated, balanced, in tune, and on time. The second thing we notice is that they all focus on one person in front of them. We call the c…

WHAT DOES GOD DO WITH YOUR PRAYERS? There is $1 million waiting for you in the bank downtown with your name on it. To receive it, you must get off the couch, call a cab, and claim your fortune. If you received that notice from the bank, would you see if it was real? If, for no other reason, most of us will go for curiosity's sake alone. Yet we have…

WHY DOES THE TRUTH SET US FREE? In John 8:32, the Passion Bible says, "For if you embrace the truth, it will release true freedom into your lives." Over the past decades, philosophers and freethinkers have wondered about truth. Gathering in groups, they debate with the logic of their empty understanding, trying to find their concept of it. After th…

YOUR UNBREAKABLE MARRIAGE TO CHRIST Tell me what church or theological stream you were raised in, and I'll tell you the level of anxiety you have about your salvation. That's a strange way to start a discussion of the most beautiful thing that could ever happen to us. To be born again by the blood of Jesus. God's dream from the beginning was always…

MOMENTARY MONARCHS AND OTHER DISAPPEARING TERRORS In my youth, we sang a song in the church called "Turn your eyes upon Jesus." "Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full, and his wonderful face and the things of the world will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace." That song captures the theme of my video tonight concerning the curren…

YOU ARE AS CLOSE TO THE FATHER AS YOU WANT TO BE In the early days of our evangelistic travels, Arlis and I found ourselves on the East Coast of this great country. With a few days between commitments, we joined two of our best friends and headed for the Big Apple. New York City. Times Square. The Statue of Liberty. The Empire State Building. New Y…

FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT My father was a 'sage,' and he always quoted something from the Proverbs of Solomon to support his wisdom. Our family established two repetitive habits we faithfully did all my young life. Throughout the day, my mother or father would read the Proverbs for that day. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs, and most months have…

FIVE THINGS MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME NUMBER ONE, SON, BE KIND AND FORGIVING. "And be kind one to another tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you." The Scriptures tell us that you must show yourself friendly if you want friends. In so many words, it's telling us that kindness attracts people to you. Forgivenes…

WILD WHEAT AND ANGELS-WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO DO WITH US? Hidden secrets abound. The spirit of revelation is given, and we begin to see the kingdom of God develop before our eyes. Why does one person understand the mystery of God and the spiritual world while the one beside him doesn't? Is it a matter of intellect? Or is there a more profound spiritua…

FRESH BREAD EVERY MORNING The scent of fresh, glazed donuts wafts through the windows of our church on Sunday morning. Suddenly, I was hungry for one of those beautiful creations. Hurry up, get through with your sermon, Dad, I thought as I visualized one of those sticky, sweet, luscious glaze donuts in my hand. As far as I was concerned, church cou…

I AM THE OLD OX- I FEAR NO EVIL King David said in the Psalms that he was once a young man but now was old. In that time, he had never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging for bread. This was the observation of an old ox. During the Bible days, they would train a new ox in the discipline of pulling the plow. They would put that young 400…