CoffeeBreak With The Word

Sam (not his real name) is a man with a sin problem who wants to be free! I’ve met with Sam several times and realize that nothing short of the power of the Spirit and the Word can break the chains. He has good intentions, strong desire, and yet… recently he called me in the […]

Real faith is not cheap, nor is it simple, nor is it easy! The Bible says, Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1, ASV) Faith, according to Hebrews 11, is how we take possession of eternal life while we yet live in this present world. All […]

Recently I counseled with a Believer who is in a time of great uncertainties. Everything is changing, This person is trying to cope with issues of aging, growing children who resist the old family patterns, a marriage relationship that is being redefined, a sense of place in the world that is shifting, even new thoughts […]

I just get a kick out of saying that word — hupomone (hoop·om·on·ay). Go ahead, say it again! Hupomone! I’ve taken leave of my senses, maybe writing in tongues (a new gift?) you think? Actually, I just got you to say a word of Greek from the New Testament. It’s a compound word of a […]

“Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will point out to you.” (Genesis 22:2, NLT) Faith and dread must have shared the space in Abraham’s mind as he started out […]

We act out of what we really believe, not what we think we believe! Yesterday I prayed with a woman of astonishingly deep (for this age, anyway) commitment to her marriage. Her husband has failed her in just about every way that a man can fail a woman, yet she still cares for him and […]

“Aim for nothing. You will hit it everytime!” Without constant monitoring of goals and mission, I will most likely wander, spending entire days doing things that are not of primary importance. This will illustrate my point. Technology is useful and, as most of you know, I enjoy finding ways to apply technology to ministry purposes; […]

What are you going to do with your freedom of choice today? Even recognizing that you can choose is a choice! Some of us will stumble into this day grumbling about going to work, about having to finish some project, about facing a deadline. Others will take on the challenges of this new week with […]

The phrase, ‘the will of God’ was always part of my lexicon. The Christian tradition in which I was raised placed a lot of emphasis on knowing and doing God’s will, not just generally, but in a specifically personal way. In our church, the phrase was used liberally by the pastor, by visiting missionaries, and […]

“Sine Cera” a Latin phrase meaning ‘without wax.’ The connection to our modern word, sincere, isn’t instantly obvious until we explore the usage of the phrase. Seems that it came from the potters and sculptors of the ancient world. If you had spent time molding and firing a pot only to discover cracks that marred […]