There is a scene in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit where Bilbo Baggins escapes from danger only to find himself in more danger.  With the help of a mysterious ring he stumbled upon in the dark and gloomy caves under the Misty Mountains, Bilbo escapes from the slimy creature Gollum and makes his way out by slipping undetected through a regiment of Goblins.  As chance would have it, he found his friends almost immediately and they set off on their adventure once again.     As they begin to descend [...]

Many Christians understand that giving is a basic part of their walk with Christ. The love of Jesus compels us to give our money and resources to further his kingdom and build his church. But many of us  do not know where to start. The question of how much a Christian should give has been debated for centuries. The best treatment I have found comes from a little book by Randy Alcorn called The Treasure  Principle. Because many of you do not own this book, I think that it is [...]

Meditation on Psalm 116:15 “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” As the creator of life, God does not like death. He created man and woman to live with him forever in the Garden of Eden. When Adam sinned, death entered the world as the penalty for sin and spread to all of Adam’s descendants because “we all sinned” in Adam (Rom. 5:12). Death is a fair penalty for our rebellion against the God who made us, but it was not handed down by [...]

One of the ways that the church should be different from the world is by having a unity amidst diversity. Unity and diversity are both important goals for the church. Having one or the other is not enough. They both serve to set the church apart from the world. They are both to be prayed and worked for in order to display the glory of God in the church of Jesus Christ. Have you ever thought about how the glory and nature of God can be more fully reflected in [...]

Meditation on Ecclesiastes 7:1-4 and Psalm 90:12 “A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in [...]

As I traveled around Israel last month with over thirty other pastors, I learned so much from our guide. Erez, a messianic Jew, did a phenomenal job of explaining how biblical events were affected by the geography of the land. For example, it was easy to understand why Gideon was afraid to attack the Midianites after the Lord shrunk his army from 32,000 to 300 (Judges 7). Not only was his army much smaller now, but the Midianites camped at the hill of Moreh were within eyesight of the springs [...]