I did what you said. Now what?

“Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.” Mark 6:45-46 Assuming great success after a season or moment of obeying a command of God is vain imagination. Dreams of success …

Long live Christian music.

I’m not one to listen to K-Love all day and this isn’t a post to complain about the small playlists of most Christian radio stations … BUT … there is value of listening to music which helps you focus on God. If you desire to have unbroken communion with God, anything that assists you in …

The Armor of God

Ephesians 6:10-20 (Romans 13:14) Put on the armor of God. Saying no to sin is a daily battle. Some days are skirmishes and others are full out hand to hand combat. Sure, it’s easier to give in and then ask for forgiveness but you lose so much ground in the process. As Christians, we received …

God’s “Weird” Way of Answering Our Prayers

Judges 13:22, “We’re certainly going to die . . . because we have seen God!” Do we always know what we're asking when we pray? We beg God for showers of blessing but we ask without knowing that black clouds must gather in to bring them. Thank God for this ignorance because we might hesitate …

5 Essentials for a Better Bible Study

Yesterday marked the first completion of reading the Bible through in a year for me. 2019 was a great year of faith building and growth in Christ and I believe this was largely due to a consistent time with God in His Word and in prayer. Here I'm compiling five things that made the most …

“In Kati’s name, Amen.”

"...save the son of your maidservant." Psalms 86:16 ESV David's appeal to God is based partially on recalling the faithful nature of his mother. My mom is a righteous and God-fearing lady as well. Though I can't pray "in Kati's name" I do well to mention her and plead God's faithfulness to the third and …

Three Answers to Prayer

I'm reading a devotional in the Bible App Youversion called "Pray like Jesus" by Pastor Mark Driscoll. He tells a funny and helpful story about his kids in reference to how God answers us when we pray. "Like all dads, God reserves three potential answers to all prayers: Yes, No, or Later. Some years ago, …

4 Reasons Why Churches Should Stop Doing the Helicopter Egg Drop

Eight years ago I was pastoring a small church in Ashland Ohio. The church was one year old and we had around 50 people at the time. We wanted to do something BIG for an Easter outreach so we dropped 10,000 eggs from a helicopter and we emptied our checking account to do it. It …

The Shadow of Prayer

Prayer is always the forerunner of divine mercy. Even a short glance at Christian history uncovers that great mercies are seldom known separated from supplication. This is also true of personal experience. There are showers of unsolicited favor but still great prayer has been the prelude of great mercy within. When peace was found by …

Faith and Trust

Luke 17:5 “The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" We ask God to increase our FAITH but what we need is to TRUST that the faith he's already given us is sufficient to cover our needs. Think about it like this. If our life in Christ were a bank account, FAITH would be …