We are all given one lifetime to discover our calling and purpose from God and move in that calling and purpose to please Him. Unfortunately, many never do find their God-given purpose and waste a lifetime serving self rather than serving God. And when the end of life comes , and the Creator says , “Now is the time to come home,” we can look over our lives and say either one of two things: Thank you, Jesus, I have not wasted time down here but have finished wh

Mark 7:17-19 is one of the most mishandled passages in the Gospels when people want Jesus to have canceled God’s dietary instructions. They quote one verse, pull it out of the actual argument, and turn a dispute about ritual handwashing into a declaration that unclean animals are now fine to eat. That is not what is happening in the passage. The issue in Mark 7 is not unclean animals. This matters, because many people come to this text with the assumption already in place tha

A Divine Encounter in a Furniture Store! Here is something you can praise the Lord about! My wife Sandra goes into Canton, Ohio and gives piano lessons every Thursday from 3:30 to 8:30 pm. After subbing in a local school district, I usually go into Canton and eat supper while she gives these piano lessons. As I was driving to my favorite restaurant, I was really pressing in on the Lord to continue to give me people to talk to about Him. I know there are those who He h

Most believers grow up assuming that if a pastor says something with a Bible in his hand, God must be fine with it. We inherit sermons, church calendars, and traditions, then call it “walking with Jesus,” even when a lot of it never came from God in the first place. Isaiah 29:13 says, "The Lord said, 'Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which