Disciple-making starts with prayer! I sat in front of the funeral chapel three minutes before addressing a packed house. Every seat was filled and people were standing around the room. It was a funeral for a 23-year-old mother of two small children. I had been asked by her grandparents to conduct the funeral and knew […]
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law (Galatians 5:22, 23, English Standard Version). Perhaps more than any of its fellow traits, goodness is a tricky attribute to pin down. It’s one of those things we know when we see […]
God is sovereign over his kingdom. He decides who gets in and who is put out. Still he invites, entices, and pleads with people to accept the invitation into his kingdom. It is his good pleasure to give his people the kingdom (Luke 12:32). But those who are invited must respond. Our text comes once […]
Have you ever heard of unpaired words? Language experts consider a word unpaired if it stands alone even though on the surface it looks like it should have a straightforward opposite. For example, “dismayed” has no corresponding opposite (“mayed”). Here are some more examples: If you’re not disgruntled, are you gruntled? Since disheveled means you […]
Welcome can be defined as “a word of kind greeting to one whose arrival gives pleasure.” As I consider the definition, it seems to me that part of it can be faked, but part of it can’t. When the Welcoming Spirit Is Absent “A word of kind greeting” can be given with a cold heart […]
