Jesus told people who wanted to follow Him to count the cost of doing so.  The first cost Jesus mentioned was potential dissolution of familial bonds.  Your family may hate or disown you (Matthew 10.21-22,34-37; Luke 14.26).    Family – home – is our natural foundation.  Family creates for us a sense of ‘normal’, the familiar, that with which we are comfortable.  ‘Family’ knows us – has always kno...  Read More

The apostles wanted to persuade people, not merely to escape hell or seek eternity in heaven, but to follow Jesus now, in this life, and on into eternity.You don’t “convert” for merely a moment.  You follow – and keep following.Following Jesus means you are willing to start – and that you actually start.And you start with the intention of finishing.  You commit at the outset to run the entire cour...  Read More

The preacher asked those that wanted to escape hell to come forward.  So I went forward at the first altar call I had ever witnessed.  Who in his right mind wouldn’t want to escape the hell that the preacher had described???  The counselor in the back room I was led to asked if I believed Jesus was my Savior.  Being a good Catholic, I said yes.  The counselor then read 1 John 5.14-15: “These thing...  Read More

“If an unbeliever dies in a car accident after church, aren’t you responsible for him going to hell if you didn’t give the gospel and an invitation to be saved?”No, because I affirm this simple truth:  God is sovereign and works providentially in the world.  God normally works in, through, and behind the ordinary workings of the everyday world.  Therefore, I must conduct myself in accordance with ...  Read More

When I was trained in evangelism, I was told to quote the exact words of the Bible and then let the Word of God do its work.  I was rebuked more than once for trying to put things into other words.  My words, I was told, had no power.  God’s Word saved people.I struggled to understand how my trainers viewed this.  What difference did it make which words I used, so long as they conveyed the truth a...  Read More

During my college years I was trained in the Evangelism Explosion program at a large midwestern church.  We went door to door and asked: “If you died tonight, and God asked ‘Why should I let you into My heaven?’, what would you say?”.  A series of simple questions followed, designed to avoid rabbit trails and to keep the person on the topic of getting to heaven.  If they wanted to go to heaven, yo...  Read More

I came out of Bible college angry and critical of a lot in evangelical churches – things I believed were misguided and not biblically-based that needed to be changed.  I believed that if we just based everything on the Bible, ministries would succeed and churches would grow.I was fueled and driven almost solely by ideals.  I was going to be true to God’s Word where others failed to be.  God’s Word...  Read More

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:…a time to break [things] down, and a time to build [things] up.                                                                                                     -- Ecclesiastes 3.1,3bWhen I graduated from college I was the typical “angry young man”.  I wasn’t outraged to the point of radicalism, but definitely angry at ...  Read More

In April 2016 I was in line at Dunkin Donuts.  The guy in front of me was a veteran in his 60’s, still pretty buff, wearing a fatigue jacket and a crewcut.  He and some friends were discussing Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign.  The high school kid behind the counter asked snarkily, “When was America EVER great???”  The vet responded:  "I'm sixty years old and I've been all around the wo...  Read More

…I remember when, in the NFL, they just laid the ball down in the end zone after a touchdown.  I don’t remember when Homer Jones spiked the football for the first time (I was only four) – but I do remember the first theatrical celebrations in the end zone:  Elmo Wright (high-stepping in the same place) and Billy “White Shoes” Johnson (hands in the air, wiggling his knees in and out).  I also remem...  Read More

It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.(Acts 6.2) The word “serve” in that verse is diakoneo – the same root as the word “deacon”, so many see in Acts 6 the birth of the office of deacon.  Jesus was crucified and rose again during the Passover feast when Jews from all over the empire had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  Many who responded a few weeks later...  Read More

A question I receive often is about church membership.  If I am joined to Christ when I believe the gospel, isn’t that enough?  Why should I become a member of a church? Let’s say a man walks in off the street that none of us knows and says, “I believe in Jesus.  May I teach your 5th-6th grade Sunday school class?”  What would you think of our leadership if we said: “You’re a member of the body of...  Read More