Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the fight between what our body needs and what it thinks it needs. In this corner, we have a sensation or weakness caused by the need for food, widely known as “hunger.” And, in this corner, stands the desire for food or drink, a craving if you will, the returning champion, “appetite.” We anticipate a clean scuffle but as we all know very well, appetite can pull out some pretty dirty tricks. The line is thin, pale and fading between what we eat, how much we consume, when we dine and under what circumstances we […]

Here it is September again. Time to get back to work, time to leave the lazy days of August behind and get back into the rat race. School is in full swing which means parent–teacher meetings, after school sports and activities, Bible studies at church and small group meetings.  It’s time to seriously get day timers in order and juggle schedules so that everything fits someplace. Then there’s the challenge of monitoring the kids homework,  putting an appetizing meal on the table for a family dinner if that’s possible between the after-work  and extracurricular activities, answering your email, checking Facebook […]

The call to leadership is a distinguished one; this privilege is never to be taken for granted.  The purpose here, though, is not to debate how great the call of leadership is but to pose one simple, yet eye-opening question to leaders around the world today.  Where you are leading is not nearly as important as to how you are leading.  So, whether you are called as a leader at home within your family, a corporation, the nation, a school, your friendships, your church, etc., this question still begs direct application to you: Should you get in the way, or […]

Last week during our Tuesday night Bible Study on Luke we read the following passage: All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!” (Luke 4:36) The Message Bible translates the passage(s) in the following manner: That set everyone back on their heels, whispering and wondering, “What’s going on here? Someone whose words make things happen? Someone who orders demonic spirits to get out and they go?” [Yeshua] Jesus was the talk of the town.” (Luke 4:36-37) Mark comments on this […]

There’s something about death that seems to intrigue all of us. When studying history in school, there was always something in me that wanted to know more about the guillotines used during the French Revolution and the bloody spectacle of the games that would take place in the Coliseum of Rome. I also remember noticing that pretty much every other young person I knew shared this macabre interest in death. There’s something about our fallen-ness and flesh that is drawn to the darkness of death. We know it’s not right and we know it should never be taken lightly. And […]