Dig Deep

Fire and Fur Coats

There is an old Jewish term, tzaddik im peltz, meaning, “a righteous man in a fur coat.” There are two ways of keeping warm on a cold night. You can wear a fur coat or light a fire. Wear a fur coat and you warm only yourself. Light a fire and you warm others. The year 2020 has been one of the most unusual years of my life (and I could be so bold and suggest the same is true of you). The year has been polarizing. We have all experienced loss and gain, peace and fear, loneliness and community […]

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Giving Thanks for the True Bread from Heaven

For the last three months we have been engaged in a new apologetic focus: Surprised by Jesus: Encountering Christ in the Old Testament. I have been preaching this as a sermon series at Cross Community Church, and it is available for you to hear at sermonaudio.com/thecrosscc Because this is the month of Thanksgiving, I thought we should pause to give thanks for the True Bread from Heaven. We will continue with our three-part formula for finding Jesus in the Old Testament by using these three headings: The Problem, The Promise, and The Person. Next month we will have a special […]

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Nourish Your Nazareth

My love for music started at a young age. I loved the melodies, harmonies and tones. Music was just something that caught my attention no matter where I was or what situation I was in. There would even be times where in the middle of a dream, I’d conjure up a melody. Some of those melodies I still remember today. Because of this love for music, I got to end up in interesting situations, but never in a million years did I ever imagine myself being where I am today. Basically, I never thought I’d be using music for the […]

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Church Connect: A New Opportunity Emerges

Forty years ago, South Floridians across hundreds of different ethnic backgrounds, race and life stages gathered to hear one of the icon evangelical figures to this day. They listened intently as Evangelist Billy Graham passionately commanded the attention of those in Lockhart Stadium as he gracefully pointed them towards Jesus Christ. Thousands were saved. Fast forward 20 years and you’ll find over 300,000 South Floridians gathered across the beach in Fort Lauderdale to participate in one of this community’s largest evangelistic efforts to-date: BeachFest. Thousands were saved.    Church Connect: A New Opportunity Emerges Alongside hundreds of other local churches, […]

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Thanksgiving Thoughts

I get nostalgic around Thanksgiving. A few years ago, the holiday had me thinking back to my childhood on the mission field in the Middle East. Thanksgiving in Israel Those were dangerous times. We were evacuated three times amid gunfire and threats, my Dad was arrested in Iraq, and he was even kidnapped by Palestinians. We had to leave this missional minefield, but my parents figured out how to continue the ministry via correspondence courses.   The power is not in the sower, the power is in the seed This is when I began to understand the power was not […]

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Surprised by Jesus – As The Almighty Ark

I (Scroll down to leave a comment on Jesus being the Almighty Ark) want to thank several of you for your positive and encouraging comments on our new study, “Surprised by Jesus: Encountering Christ in the Old Testament.” As I said previously, when I was first exposed to seeing Jesus in the Old Testament, it changed everything about how I read the Bible. I hope that you too will be delighted to discover Jesus in places you might never have seen Him before not so much to increase your knowledge, but rather, your love for Jesus. You can also go […]

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Gospel Hope In The Seasons Of Life

Last month we saw how God arranged the sequence of night and day to teach the gospel. At creation he established a sequence of evening followed by morning, of darkness followed by light. This pattern reminds us of our gospel hope that death itself will one day give way to new life. Every day God is faithful. Every day he calls us out of the heavy darkness of night into the marvelous light of dawn. We learn to recognize that when we walk through the shadows of darkness, God is drawing closer and closer to the dawn of redemption. But […]

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Surprised by Jesus – As the Seed of the Woman

(Scroll down to leave a comment on Jesus being the seed of the woman) Last month I introduced you to the new apologetic focus we will pursue for the next few months: Surprised By Jesus: Encountering Christ in the Old Testament. I am preaching this as a sermon series, which is available for you to hear on our church website. I want to emphasize that this concept was not invented by the imagination of men, but rather expressed through the revelation of God in the words of Jesus to two downcast disciples on the afternoon of the first Easter as […]

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Gospel Hope in Days of Darkness

Do you remember when you were a child learning how to tell the time? First, your parents told you the strange news that somehow a clock had “hands.” Next, they showed you that one hand was longer than the other, and based on this odd fact, you could identify the time of day down to the very minute! Then came the wonderful day when you realized you didn’t have to bother with any of this complicated business at all. Digital clocks were far more practical! As children, we don’t just learn to tell time by looking at a clock. From […]

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For Ours Is the Kingdom

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom” (Matthew 5:3).   Do you feel weary? Tired? Do you feel discouraged at your lack of physical, emotional or spiritual strength? Today, God is giving us an invitation through this incredibly powerful verse. He calls the poor in spirit blessed. He invites those who feel their deep need and their poverty of heart to come and experience the kingdom for themselves. He invites us.   This passage has been ringing in my heart for months. It seems that lately everywhere I look I feel my weakness; I feel my […]

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