It’s Christmas. Arguably the most common questions at this time of year are: What do you want for Christmas? What are you doing for Christmas? What did you get for Christmas? As I meditated in the Word last night, I was made aware of some alarming parallels between the sentiments expressed...

‘Ask the King’ In our current series entitled ‘How to Rebuild’ we are on a journey through the book of Nehemiah. After essentially what was a 70 year long ‘timeout’ for God’s people, God allowed His people to return to their promised land. However, the...

Recognition & Repentance In the current series, ‘How to Rebuilt’ we are looking closely at rebuilding of Jerusalem after the completion of the nations exile to Babylon. As a bit of a reminder, we must remember that this exile to Babylon was entirely a God imposed punishment...

Stuff happens. Things get broken. Security gets dismantled. Blessings are broken. In life there are numerous unavoidable situations of brokenness and destruction. The causes will vary, but the result is the same: we are faced with the need to rebuild. After years of idolatry and refusal to...

How do you keep track of what you pray for? Do you have a journal? An extra sheet of paper in your Bible? Do you do it at all? If you don’t, why don’t you? If you do, why do you? I’m going to assume that if we are praying about a particular subject then it means something...

When I entered the training college to become a Salvation Army officer I must admit that I knew very little about historical Army ministry. I knew very little of the intentional focus that our predecessors placed upon storming the literal ‘forts of darkness’ in their communities...

Did you ever get in trouble as a kid? For those of you who know me it may be hard to envision, but I had a slight slant towards the ornery. I seemed to always do the wrong thing at the wrong time. Time outs were common. There is one story I will never forget- when I was about 4-5 on a grocery...

The song says, “And this Christmas will be a very special Christmas for me!” I was thinking about that line pulled from the soulful Christmas song and how much those few words really convey the type of Holiday that will be had by some this Christmas season. You see, it will be a very...

I have a Homiletics professor named Dr. Elio Cucaro. He had been around for a while and had amassed a large amount of knowledge concerning his area of study. I like to think of him as a complete walking biblical commentary. When listening to him, you realize the difference between talking and...

The book of Exodus gives an account of the departure of the people of Israel from Egypt. The sheer number of references to the exodus in the Old Testament scriptures gives an indication of the significance of the event in Israelite history (e.g. Lev 26:13; Judges 6:8; Amos 2:10; Micah 6:4)....

Last year I was blessed to sit in a lecture under Dr. Bill Uri. I can vividly remember a story he told us about how he and his brother became close. His family had gone to the beach and the two boys had been bickering all day. Even in the water they antagonized each other. Eventually, while...

I had a discussion in one of my classes the other day about denominational requirements for people that want to be pastors. The question was about how we relate and deal with doctrinal and theological requirements of many ordination boards. The Army, as many other churches, wants its people to...

Does the Bible feel oppressive? Confining? Does it seem to you that with every page turn comes a new rule meant only to zap even more fun and happiness out of your life? I am sad to say that I myself subscribed to these ideas about the Bible for many years. I thought the Bible was God’s...

Sometimes I think most evangelism is the American Christian Church is laughable. I believe we are far to dependent upon hip strategies and four step processes when it comes to evangelism. While I believe the desire to share the faith is alive in many believers hearts, we attempt to meet this...

There are mornings when I seem to devour scripture like captain crunch cereal. I sometimes swallow entire chapters whole. However, this was not the case this morning- I could barely make it past one verse. The verse that stopped me in my tracks this morning was Joshua 13:13. What? Don’t...

I sat in a jam packed auditorium this evening full of joy, excitement and a healthy dose of pride. This myriad of emotions occurred during the finale program of the 2011 TAMC (Territorial Arts Ministry Conservatory). As I watched the dancing, acting and other artistic displays I was blown away...

This is the prayer of a seventeen year old Quaker girl from 1849. If you are like me you can gather encouragement that the weakness we experience today in our pursuit of a pure life is nothing new! May we persevere! May we be Holy! “Oh my Father! stretch out your all powerful arm in...

“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not...

Has the Lord turned away from His servant? Have His eyes lost favor on my face? Are You not everywhere or do my enemies share in Your omnipresence? Where can I go from them? They find me everywhere I am. On the mountain they are there In the valley they have seen me. Their eyes search for me...

Gideon made it into an ephod, and placed it in his city, Ophrah, and all Israel played the harlot with it there, so that it became a snare to Gideon and his household. – Judges 8:27   The Gideon narrative is found in Judges 6-8. Gideon has many shades of character in this story....

I’d like to consider Mary Magdalene’s encounter with the risen Jesus outside the tomb as recorded in John. Early in the morning Mary had journeyed to the tomb to find that the stone had been rolled away with no sign Jesus’ body inside the tomb. She was distraught by what she understood...

I sat in my room, and I thought to myself.  I said, “Self!”  Myself said,”Hmmm?”  “When was the last time I was truly sorry about something?” I wondered.  Myself was silent, so I continued to think until i could provide myself an answer. I began to think back to things that i...

‘And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.‘ Hebrews 11:6 The Akedah is the literal, biblical account of God commanding Abraham’s offerings. Offerings..as in...

Supply and demand play a large role in our society more than we realize.  We see it in stores, in our Government, the daily news usually has a segment discussing the supply and demand of many of our resources (Gas, gold, silver, etc.).  A few years ago, Sony and some other manufacturers...

Tucked in the first verse of a transition paragraph, Luke records the following: “…he went through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the Kingdom of God.” Luke 8:1 Did you catch the interesting word in there? If not look right after proclaiming…. It...