"Make your verbs work!" My two cents worth for corporate types and writer wannabes attending my Effective Writing seminars. For example, instead of, "She is fond of surfing," write, "She loves to surf." Why not this: "The sun shone," in place of, "The sun was...
Suppose the pastor of a large church divided up his flock into two groups, and instead of the normal “whatever they do” routine practiced on Sunday morning, he announced, “Half of you represent blessings, and the other half curses. Now, I’m going to read a list of...
The world needs leaders. Good, godly, intelligent leaders. And so does the church. Corrupted leaders, especially when they are nationally or internationally known, have brought suffering and shame upon the church. Yet there would not be a church today without some...
I will never forget that afternoon in May 1981, when PNoy or Noynoy Aquino, the man who would be the 15th president of the Philippines, became our driver for a day-tour of Boston. In the car was his dad, former Senator and political prisoner Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino,...
The number one problem when it comes to family living isn't our failure to communicate, as important as that may be. Nor is it what takes place behind the bedroom door, or keeping our in-laws from becoming outlaws. The greatest, single problem facing families today is...
God knows our individual struggles. He “knit us together in our mother’s womb,” knows the number of hairs on our heads, and knows what we are thinking from afar (Luke 12:7, Psalm. 139). He knows our anxieties, our perceived inadequacies, and every wound. He gives us...
Tension itself is not necessarily a bad thing. Remember, the violin attains beauty in tone because of the tension of the strings as the bow gently glides across them; but too much tension will only snap the string. Stress. There are basically three responses to the...
The Bible records that God told the priests how to bless the people. He says in Numbers 6:23-26, “Say to them: ‘The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you...
A Japanese businessman was invited by his American host to attend church with him, and he quickly agreed. At the end of the message, which was delivered by the Methodist clergyman Ralph Sockman, his host asked him what he thought of the message. In his discreet,...
This is important to understand, considering we have both good leaders and the few rare ones who abuse and take advantage of their followers. There are believers who have been so wounded by leadership that they do not submit to any human leadership. They insist that...