Home God

How to Find Purpose in Thanksgiving

What if we’ve completely missed God’s intended purpose of Thanksgiving? What if this is the year we should “do it right” but missed it?  There are great mandates to celebrate by remembering what God has done for us, and yet so often we celebrate the “celebration” and forget the intended purpose. The Lord’s Supper is a perfect example. So often you can take part in the Lord’s Supper at church and totally forget to do the work of doing it “in remembrance of Him.”   Refocus Thanksgiving is another example. The first Thanksgiving celebration was a time of thanking God. […]

-Read More


Thanks-Living – More Thankful for the Giver than the Gifts

There are many ways for Christians to “give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15). Since we celebrate Thanksgiving this month, let us focus on one of the best ways to witness to the truths of the Gospel – Thanks-Living, by which we demonstrate to the watching world that we are more thankful for the Giver of the gifts than the gifts themselves. Here is one of the best examples in all of sacred Scripture of what Thanks-Living looks like in a child of God. “I heard […]

-Read More


Let Us Do Good to All People

At God’s direction, Jeremiah sent a letter to the exiled people of God in Babylon which said, “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7). They would return to their home in Jerusalem after seventy years in a foreign land. During those years, they had a calling to build up and not tear down, to pray and not curse, to seek the welfare of the city where they were exiled. Their own wellbeing depended on […]

-Read More


Jesus, Only Jesus – Song Story

Fifteen attempts and nothing. This song’s theme is too broad and it won’t work. The task is too much. The spiritual weight, too heavy. How could a song be written about a revival that would usher in a move of God? What message could contain the power of repentance? As Village Hymns set out to write this song called “Jesus, Only Jesus,” these were the questions burning in our bones. Jesus comes Quickly, Jesus swooped in and redirected our questions. With His gentle voice, He reminded us of His power and His might. He placed His books on history in […]

-Read More


The Houseguest

I recently came across an interesting story that got me thinking…   A mysterious letter A small family, known as the Harts, living in an average suburban community, received an unusual letter from an unknown distant relative. The letter stated that within the next several weeks they were planning to visit and were appreciative (nice way of saying expectant) of their willingness to provide accommodations. There was no contact information, only a black and white photograph with the grainy picture of an old man. You can only imagine their apprehension, confusion and curiousity.   The Harts were a young couple, married […]

-Read More


Looking Forward to Heaven Together

Warren and I met when we were 11 in high school and began dating at 16. I had the joy of leading him to the Lord when he had asked God for a sign that He was real and was supernaturally spared in an auto accident. We married at 19. He was the only Christian in his nominally Catholic family, and we began praying for their salvation. Fast forward 40 plus years and we were still praying. At the beginning of September, the opportunity finally opened up for us to visit our mothers in England. Both are 83, and since […]

-Read More


Church Leaders Discuss State of the Church

Last month over 300 local churches gathered for Church United’s State of South Florida featuring David Kinnaman, president of Barna Research Group to unveil the findings from one of the largest research projects ever conducted on the state of the Church in South Florida. Equipped with this research, we believe South Florida churches are poised to collaborate like never before in awakening the people in our pews for mission.  Heres’ the bottom line: Rather than asking what are we going to do, we need to ask what are we going to change. We are after outcomes, not outputs. In a post-covid […]

-Read More


Franklin Graham: Living as People of the Cross

(Leave a comment below on what you feel it means to live as a “person of the Cross.” ) Like many Americans, I was appalled and sickened by the images of desperate Afghan citizens clinging to the undercarriage of a C-47 transport plane at the Kabul airport as they sought to flee the return of the Taliban’s brutal rule. When the news came that 13 American service members had died at the hands of a suicide bomber, my heart broke. I could only think of wives and husbands, parents, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, aunts and uncles, who would never […]

-Read More


Know Thy City: Steps to Effective Urban Ministry

You’re the God of this City You’re the King of these people You’re the Lord of this nation You are You’re the Light in this darkness You’re the Hope to the hopeless You’re the Peace to the restless You are There is no one like our God For greater things have yet to come And greater things are still to be done in this City ~Chris Tomlin “God of this City” lyrics   I am moved each time I hear this song affirming that our God is indeed God of this City. For those of us who are trying to […]

-Read More


My Word!

“We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot” is a quote from a speech given by Abraham Lincoln on May 29, 1856. In it, we are reminded that we should walk the walk when we talk the talk. Our sixteenth president was characterized by his integrity and there are numerous recorded instances where this is exemplified. An obscure one involved a stagecoach trip by “Honest Abe” with a military colonel, where the latter wants to share a drink of whiskey with the president, who declines the offer. Unshaken, he takes out […]

-Read More