my words

When Moses led the people to the Red Sea they were boxed in.  Sea on one side surrounding them and the Egyptian army on the opposite side coming toward them.  The Jewish sages say that the people divided into four groups. The first group said, we should throw...

“The Lord lives!  Blessed be my Rock!  Let the God of my salvation be exalted.  It is God who avenges me, And subdues the peoples under me; He delivers me from my enemies.  You also lift me up above those who rise against me; You have delivered me from the...

“I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge” I Cor. 1:5a You Have Everything You Need to Succeed Thankfulness comes in...

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise.  Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” Ps. 100:4 Invitations Provide Opportunity Once while in Kenya I was invited to speak to a group of pastors.  This was a particularly busy...

  “…and the joy of the people of Jerusalem could be heard far away.” Neh. 12:40b As the foundations were laid and the walls built in Jerusalem the people gave thanks.  Those that lived through the exile wept, and the others that saw this new day sang...

The next couple of months I am going to dedicate this post to teachings on thanksgiving.  As you know one year ago the Lord spoke to my wife and challenged her to live every day with a thankful heart.  He had also spoken to me directly about a season of...

We love to be loved!  Wouldn’t you agree?  If there is something written, spoken or sung about being loved it gets our attention like few other things.  Quite possibly the greatest love of all our loves is when we are told how much God loves us.  This is...

Momentum is defined as the impetus and driving force gained by the development of a process or course of events.  The word originates from the Latin word movimentum and just means to move. The Force is in the Promise When Jesus left the disciples in Acts 1...

The story of King David parallels our lives in so many ways.  As a young man, the prophet shows up at his door step to announce that God wanted to make him the king.  Can you for one moment even fathom what that may have felt like?  He was a nobody, no fame to claim...

I have had the privilege of talking to a lot of people over many years about what they love to do, what they feel gifted to do.  What they are passionate to do.  Let me be clear, what someone may feel passionate about may not be what they are actually...

I’ve had a burning in my heart all week for this post.  Thankfulness is always the goal, but it will come from a different angle this week. The writer of the book and now famous movie “Lord of the Rings” tells this story with a prophetic insight to much of...

I am a big fan of that old show "The Wonder Years"  It's about life in the late 1960's and 1970's.  That was my era, my time.   I was the first black kid in the suburban neighborhood where I grew up, and that in itself brought about some challenges, but my...

Do you remember the original opening to the Twilight Zone?  "There is a 5th dimension.  Beyond that which is known to man.  It's a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity.  It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science...

Do you remember the movie Back to the Future?  It's a story about a teenage boy and a doctor who invents a time machine.  It seemed like a harmless adventure so the Doc could study history.  The problem was once they went into the past they kept screwing...

I was reading a study today that said teenage drug overdose deaths went up 19% last year.  In one year, that's a lot of young people that were in overwhelming situations. You are probably in some kind of challenge in your life, right?  It may be family,...

What do you see when you look at the picture?  This optical illusion (link to some great optical illusions) gives the impression something is moving even when its not.  We are continuing to look through the lens of our perspective this week as it relates...

An optical illusion:  is something that deceives the eye by appearing to be other than it is.  An experience of seeming to see something that does not exist or that is other than it appears. A False Image Optical illusions are images or pictures that we...

When I was fourteen I crushed my vertebra in a skateboard accident.  I was very fortunate because it was my sixth vertebra and not my fifth which could have caused me to be paralyzed in some form.  I had to lay flat on my back for several days while a...

A man was on a journey when he decided to stop and rest.  Being late, he wasn’t expecting much to be open, but he was also trying to avoid the crowds so this was a good time.  He located a small pub just inside the city limits, parked his car and walked...

Have you ever asked God, "How did I get here?"  The question is really rhetorical, but it's a necessary dialogue because you really desire to backtrack through the last season to set marker stones of reminders the way Israel did to remember the great...

The halfway mark for 2017 is quickly approaching.  It's amazing how fast the year has flown by and before you know it we will be  preparing for Thanksgiving and Christmas again.  The children are all enjoying their summer vacations and many families are...

This week is both a tribute and an appeal to the incredible and faithful men out there we call dads.  As I reflect on the man I am today, I do it having recognized all my success has been built upon the faithful men who have modeled, sacrificed and...

Last week my wife and I were on vacation and while we were waiting to check our luggage at the airport, she noticed a man that looked just like TD Jakes.  The resemblance was astounding as he was even dressed like he was ready to preach at any time.  He...

This week, my wife and I will be boarding a ship for a week vacation in the Caribbean to celebrate our 35th Anniversary.  Each year is a milestone because its another year where two people have chosen to share one life together.  That in itself is a...

Priceless - So precious that its value cannot be determined; used to express great and usually affectionate amusement Value - The regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something One of the most challenging things...

Last week I discussed how Paul and Silas were blocked from going to Asia and instead were directed by God to go to Macedonia.  There in Philippi they were beaten and put in jail when they cast a demon out of slave girl who used witchcraft to make money....

Have you ever decided to take a path you felt was the right direction for your current season, but right after moving in this new direction you are stopped by a huge obstacle?  I am in one of these moments in my life right now, maybe the most defining...

If you could only do one thing what would it be?  Travel to some exotic far off place?  Meet a famous person or some great historic figure?  Maybe your one thing is to become famous yourself.  To become a great singer or sought after actor or maybe an...

In Chapter 17 of the gospel of John Jesus sums up his purpose and prays for the conclusion to His time on earth.  In His prayer He reveals His heart for us all. John 17:20 - 23 "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those will believe in Me through...

One of my favorite hymns is "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee" also know as the Hymn to Joy.  This song began as a poem written by Henry J. Van Dyke in 1907 with the intention of singing it to Beethoven's 9th Symphony.  Here are the words to the first verse....

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I were in a restaurant having dinner when she says to me.  Give our server an encouraging word.  This made me remember back when we started our church we realized we would need to do church differently.  People were...

Zelo's Girls (A Story of Justice) One of my favorite hidden stories in the bible is buried in Numbers 27:1-11.  There is a good chance you've never heard this story so let me share it and why its so important.  Zelophehad came out of Egypt with the rest of...

Every one of us are on a journey to discover God and live out the destiny he has created for us.  We're all at different stages and we all have taken different paths.  For many of us, our paths have been difficult, maybe even disastrous.  Just to be alive...

The Lord is my Shepherd...Psalms 23 One of my all time favorite passages is Psalms 23.  It reveals the heart and nature of God over us his people.  Many of us in the west fail to fully grasp the content of the passage because shepherds are uncommon in our...

There is an old saying, "we can choose our friends but we're stuck with family".  The implication is a negative one.  For many of us family has become a bad word and we avoid them like a disease.  Maybe not all of them, but I think we can all relate to...

God is amazing!  There are not enough words in our English language to describe his greatness.  There is one word that is used over and over again mainly in the Psalms that gets very little attention.  I would like to use this word this week to inspire us...

David Decides God Needs A Home There is an amazing story in 2 Samuel 7, allow me to unpack it.  King David has a season of peace because he had beaten most of his enemies.  He is in his palace when it dawns on him that the Ark of God was in a tent....

This week I am so thankful to God for establishing the importance of authority and honor in our lives.  In Matthew 8 a Roman Centurion asked Jesus to heal his servant, but he said he was not worthy of Jesus coming into his home and since he was a man with...

"O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name! But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you?  Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us!"  1 Chronicles 29:13-14 NLT Amazing Stories...

I recently had a situation where I received some extra money, but then I was surprised by a bill that came unexpectedly.  I even said out loud every time I get extra money it seems I get a bill (which isn't true). But at that moment all I could see was the...

"Give thanks to the Lord; his faithful love endures forever!" 2 Chronicles 20:21b What a celebration of praise it must have been that day! Israel had been attacked by several armies and there was not a thing they could do about it.  There was absolutely no...

"I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors, for you have given me wisdom and strength.  You have told me what we asked of you and revealed to us what the king demanded." Dan2:23 Daniel Inspires Us to Live Radically in the Face of Politically Challenging...

Every time I Think of What God Has Done I am Thankful Every time I think of you, I thank God.  Stop for a moment and think about this.  Who does that remind you of?  One young summer afternoon when I was thirteen, the boys in my neighborhood decided we...