{Prayer} According to a survey by the University of Scranton, 92% of people don’t finish the goals they set for themselves. 92%. That’s a sobering and rather depressing statistic. Last week we kicked off our Red Letter Challenge. This challenge is something that I don’t want you to start and fizzle out of…
{Prayer} A couple of phrases that bother me the most as a parent are, “do I have too?” and “I did it last time, it’s their turn.” So, my wife came up with a brilliant idea in order to resolve this problem. We have a magnet on the front of the dishwasher and…
{Prayer} Last week we spent a week of being. Being in Christ, being His disciples, being shaped by His Word. But what happens when we fail? What happens when our being is marked by sin? This week, we focus on forgiveness. To illustrate how Jesus deals with our sin, let’s start with something…
Matthew 7:24-27; 9:37 {Prayer} Have you ever had good intentions but completely missed the mark? Maybe you had a plan, an expectation, and it just didn’t go as you hoped. Jessica and I decided to take a trip a couple of years ago to Nashville, Tennessee to celebrate our anniversary. We had…
Luke 9:28-36 {Prayer} If you haven’t been there and done it … you’ve probably seen it happen. A student stays up way too late playing video games, scrolling through their phone, or watching movies. For me in college, it was bowling. You’d think that a bowling alley with 48 lanes wouldn’t have a…
James 5:7-11 {Prayer} Pop quiz time. Please feel free to say the answer out loud if you know it. Good job! So often, when we want something, we want it right … now! After all, we have instant coffee, instant potatoes, instant breakfast and instant pudding. Then, we want an instant diet. And you’re…
James 4:13-17 {Prayer} In 1938, a Massachusetts man went into an Abercrombie and Fitch store and bought a new barometer. He took it home, proudly placed it on the wall, and then he checked the weather. The barometer said “Hurricane.” He thought, “That’s not possible! Hurricanes are for Florida, not Massachusetts!” So the man grabs…
James 3:1-18 {Prayer} On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was tested in New Mexico. On that day Robert Oppenheimer, the bomb’s creator, famously quoted an ancient Hindu proverb saying, “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.” With that testing, the nuclear age had begun, unleashing destruction on an unprecedented scale.…
James 2:14-26 {Prayer} Imagine for a moment that you are driving down a quiet road late at night. In your rearview mirror, you suddenly see red and blue flashing lights. Your heart skips a beat as you think to yourself, “What did I do wrong?” You pull over, roll down your window, and…
James 1:17-25 {Prayer} Anna was a high-achieving college student who always seemed to have everything under control. But behind all of her achievements, she battled with anorexia nervosa. Each meal became a battle, every calorie a measure of her worth. She thought she could control it, but over time, the control started controlling…