God

Praying with My Eyes Open

I started 2018 with fasting and prayer. During an early prayer time, I felt God calling me to intercede like never before for my community. He asked me to grant these people, with whom I share proximity, a higher level of priority. I struggled with how to pray for my neighbors and their needs beyond a general covering thinking, “There’s gotta be an app for that.” An app for praying Not finding a “pray for your neighbors” app, I downloaded the Nextdoor app and began praying through daily posts. As I read each post, I brought my neighbors’ names and […]

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Who’s Got Zach’s Back?

Imagine living your life in such a manner that increasingly no one wanted to be around you.  You were so self-obsessed and so focused on your own “so called” success that people and relationships did not matter. Now, imagine something happened that changed all that. Perhaps a book you read, perhaps a sermon you heard, perhaps a caring friend that spoke into your life, but you truly had a “scrooge moment” and woke up with a new perspective. You were different. You assumed everyone would be happy and excited and want to celebrate this new you. However, you were not received the way you thought you would be. Perhaps […]

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RUF Reaches College Students at FAU

RUF (Reformed University Fellowship) recently kicked off  its third year of ministry on the Florida Atlantic University campus in Boca Raton. A ministry of the PCA denomination, RUF’s mission is to reach students for Christ and to equip them to serve the church. According to Campus Minster, Rev. Jeff Lee, who is also an FAU alumnus, College is a pivotal moment in a student’s life where questions of identity, purpose, meaning, and hope are constantly being discussed and explored.  For those reasons, RUF is committed to sending seminary trained, ordained pastors to campuses around the country in order to bring […]

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Jesus Never Said, “I am God”

When I talk with unbelieving skeptics, it is not uncommon to hear them object, “There is no place in your Bible where Jesus says, ‘I am God!’” And if you search the Scriptures for that exact statement from the lips of our Lord — “I am God” — it’s true that you won’t find it. But it is also true that Jesus declared that He was God in a variety of ways, and there can be no question that His first century audience clearly understood His claim to be God. To be sure, not all of that audience accepted Jesus’ […]

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What is Your Teachability Factor?

Humility seems to be teachability’s first cousin. These two family members seem to hang out together a lot. They are almost always doing something together. If you are fairly teachable, then you are fairly humble. If you are truly humble, then you have things to learn. As you think about your attitudes and opinions, consider your level of teachability and your level of flexibility. Dr. Ken Boa has a name for a condition that people who are less than teachable and flexible endure. Boa calls this rigidity “hardening of the categories.” Some people tend to prematurely place others in categories. […]

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Church United Serves MSD High School And Calls for Back-to-School Prayer

As Church United, we firmly believe that the Church, God’s people, should be the first responders to our community’s lostness, pain and brokenness. Our words and our actions are shaped by the fundamental belief that the Church of Jesus Christ is the hope of the world — and certainly the hope of South Florida. If we’re honest, hope has been a bit hard to grasp for many in our community this year. The events that unfolded at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School earlier this year have left a lasting scar, reminding us that heaven has yet to be realized. However […]

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The Power of Prophecy

(Scroll down to leave a comment on the power of prophecy.) As a pastor, I am often asked how we can know for sure that the Bible is truly the Word of God.  When confronted with this question, many Christians frequently respond by quoting 2 Timothy 3:15 — “All Scripture is God-breathed . . .” That is certainly a glorious, God-breathed truth, but when you use that verse to prove the reliability of Scripture to the serious skeptic, that unbeliever will often reply, “That’s circular reasoning! You’re telling me that the Bible is the Word of God because the Bible […]

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Underwhelmed

“But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love…” (Nehemiah 9:17) They each blundered big under a varying set of circumstances. Eve reached for the fruit, Sarah handed over her maid, Moses slammed the rock, David hatched a deadly plot, and the children of Israel rebelled at the edge of the Promised Land. How might their stories have been different if their belief in the character of God was greater than their view of themselves? What might have occurred if they had elevated God’s righteousness above their own selfish rights […]

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The Conversion of Jamel Attar

Stories of how people come to faith in Christ can be moving and powerful. In the earliest days of the Church, for example, we read of the amazing conversion of the Apostle Paul (Acts chapters 9 and 22). Paul was a man deeply committed to a religion (first century Judaism) but came to believe in Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Paul had misunderstood and opposed the Christian message, but one day he met Jesus personally and his life was changed forever. As a result, he became a great missionary for Christ. God still saves people like this, even out […]

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The Miracle of Ella Nicole

Stephen and Aimee couldn’t wait to share the good news. They were expecting their first child, a baby girl.  “We did a big reveal. We had balloons and everything. When I saw those pink balloons come out of that box, I could not have been happier. A baby girl is everything I ever wanted,” said Stephen. “We just hoped to have a happy, healthy family that loves each other and serves God together,” said Aimee. Aimee’s pregnancy went as planned until the seventh month when she was diagnosed with preeclampsia — a complication of pregnancy that caused a spike in […]

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