God

Collective Impact for the Gospel

Churches of our region face a complex problem: no single church, denomination, key leader or organization can change the spiritual climate of South Florida alone. The lostness of our region is too great, the brokenness is too complex and the pain too deep for even the largest, most resourced churches, networks or denominations to tackle. And, perhaps it was meant to be this way. We need one another. We were designed to link arms — to view each other as essential co-laborers rather than in competition with one another. However without a model and framework for impact, our collaborative efforts […]

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The Dream of God’s Heart

Did you know that God has a dream in His heart for you? He has desires and wants for your family, our city and our nation. This is a beautiful part of who God is. He is a God who thinks, loves, grieves, rejoices…and dreams. When I began to see this part of God’s nature, something changed in the way I saw and related to Him on the heart level. Seeing this part of Him stirred up a desire in me to know His heart and not just His works. A few months ago I asked God this question: “Father, […]

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Leading Community With Friendly Competition

We love a little bit of friendly competition around the OneHope office, and occasionally during lunch we will break out the backgammon boards. Vice Presidents will go head to head, moving each piece hoping to be declared the victor. The leadership team may play against the youngest members of our staff. Novice players will learn from more experienced players and vice versa. The game is a perfect blend of skill and luck, so even a beginner can beat someone more experienced once in a while. Anyone who wants to play can join, and it always ends in good fun…but not […]

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Fancy Words

Two fancy words live together. These two fancy words are siblings. I can imagine that while living together, most of the time they complement each other, they laugh together, share responsibilities, support one another, counsel each other and simply hang out. However, once in a while they also argue. These two fancy words that live together as siblings are called orthodoxy and orthopraxy. I want to take a moment and describe these two siblings. Orthodoxy is a belief in a certain set of doctrines. Various religions and groups of people, for example, have their own set of orthodoxy, their beliefs. […]

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The Gospel – Reasonable and Desirable

The best way for Christians to get an audience in our cultural moment is by communicating how the good news of the Gospel is not only reasonable, but absolutely desirable. We must share Christ through reason and romance as we engage both the head and the heart with the Truth and Beauty of Jesus. For the next few months, I will share some beautiful biblical stories of how Jesus engaged both the heads and the hearts of those He encountered. The Bible is God’s story about His mission of mercy; Jesus declared that His mission was “to seek and to […]

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Kindergarten Christians

The story goes that Ms. Desmond welcomed her ninth grade Health class on the first day of school with a blackboard drawing of the human body depicting its bones and muscles. She began to lecture from the textbook immediately and continued the practice for the next few months, never discarding or mentioning what was chalked behind her. Finally, as the end of the calendar year drew near, she gave the students the mid-term exam, which consisted of only one question……”list the major bones and muscles of the human body.” They looked up only to find that the answer was gone, […]

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Spared from COVID? Offer Streams of Mercy

Walking out of our lovely, in-person commencement ceremonies last month, I found myself humming a classic hymn of the faith, thanks to Stewart Foster, talented organist from the Royal Poinciana Chapel in Palm Beach. The soft strains of Stewart’s music filled the spaces between the names called out as graduates received their diplomas. One particular hymn kept replaying in my mind, until I concluded: We should set up an Ebenezer after ending a year under COVID-19. I bet many of you know exactly the hymn I mean, and in your mind you’re singing along with me, “Here I raise my […]

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Franklin Graham: God’s Word Is Always True

Two years ago, we held an evangelistic Crusade in the seaside town of Blackpool, England. Nine thousand people came to hear us proclaim the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hundreds made confessions of faith! This was in spite of intense opposition from the LGBTQ community, which objected to the advertising message on public transportation buses. The ads simply said “Time for Hope.” The gay activists were successful at the time in pressuring officials to remove our ads from the sides of the buses. However, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association coordinated with the Lancashire Festival trustees to take the matter […]

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Seek the Welfare of the City

“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (Galatians 6:10).   “Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good. For it is God’s will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good” (1 Peter 2:13-15).   Both Paul and Peter encouraged believers of their day to “do good” […]

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Education Is Mission

As churches look to the changing landscape of the future, explosion of choice is clouding a clear sightline. With so many opportunities for ministry, how do you choose what will make a lasting impact? Psychologist Barry Schwartz describes the shackles freedom of choice binds us with in his book The Paradox of Choice. “… choice no longer liberates, but debilitates…But clinging tenaciously to all the choices available to us contributes to bad decisions, to anxiety, stress, and dissatisfaction…” Let me highlight what I believe is one of the most critical dimensions of mission activity in the world today. It’s the […]

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