Intentional Encouragement

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.   Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesians 5:15-17, ESV) When Paul penned those words, life was tough.   “Ephesians” was among a group of letters Paul wrote from prison.   While he had a number of years left to serve the Lord, he didn’t know that for sure, nor did he know what each new day would bring.   He understood the truth of what he said very thoroughly.   We must make the best use of the time because the days are evil.   We must not be foolish but we must understand what the Lord’s will is. There are several connections my mind makes in reading these verses. First, I now have 2 college graduates numbered among my 4 children.   A third only has 2 years of college left.  The other  will be with us long term.  People told me often as a young dad; “enjoy them while they are little…it won’t be long and they’ll be gon

I spoke Sunday on the power of prayer from the end of James 5.  It is interesting to me just how much we like to talk about prayer.  We dissect it and analyze it and make acronyms for it.  We teach it and preach it and write books (and blogs!) about it.  I wonder if we spend as much time actually praying as we do talking and reading and writing about it? One of the quotes I used was from Martin Luther.  I have seen it duplicated numerous times and every time it amazes me.  " I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer. "  Really?  When is the last time you spent 3 hours in prayer during one day?  How about during one week?  We have allowed our lives to get so busy and so stressful that when we get home at night after a long day, we feel like if we spent an hour in prayer, we'd fall asleep after 5 minutes. I'm continuing to work at the importance of prayer in my life.  I'll spend more time today praying.  But I don't

     I've been praying with several friends of mine who are going through excruciating circumstances in their lives right now.  There is nothing I can physically do to help them in their trouble, but I can pray with them and for them, and offer whatever counsel they request.      My general practice is to preach expository messages to our church family.  Since that puts me in books of the bible, and in a practice of laying out fairly well in advance what I will be preaching, I don't always have the luxury of choosing a topic to preach on that I feel would be appropriate on a particular Sunday.  It is interesting to me however, just how often God brings that to pass without my knowledge.  This past Sunday was one of those occasions.  I had been preaching through James, the "How-to Manual of the Christian Life" for several months last fall.  I took a break from it during the Christmas celebration and then spoke on a topic that I was burdened about on the first Sunday o

I recently finished reading David Platt's book "Radical."  If you've not read it, you need to.  Be prepared though; it will challenge you to your core.  Among the things that I gathered from the book was the reminder of the passion we need to have in our commitment to Christ.  The Bible leaves no room for half-hearted Christianity. As I prepared for my New Year's message this year, my attention was drawn to Revelation 3.  The words are to the church at Laodicea, but are certainly fitting for us today...I thought I'd share some of it with you.  Most of us are familiar with the "lukewarm" part of the text; God doesn't want us lukewarm.  The text says he would rather we be hot or cold.  Obviously God doesn't want us to be cold, but have you thought recently about the fact that even a cold heart toward God is better than one that is lukewarm?  Mull over that a little and argue with it in your mind for a while. The part that challenged me fr