Bonus Features: Sermon Outline, Audio Soundtrack

​Have you ever had a “mountain top experience,” when your faith was so real, when God was so close, when everything was so clear that you felt that your life could never again be the same? Perhaps it was at a retreat, the birth of your child, a special Christmas Eve service, a hike in the woods or being the undeserved beneficiary of an act of charity. BUT . . . then you had to go back home, to your daily routine and to your ordinary church where the altar guild makes mistakes, the choir can be off key, the pastor can preach boring sermons and people can behave badly.

→ Continue reading Faith for the Valley

Bonus Features: Sermon Outline, Audio Soundtrack

You call the church office in search of the pastor. You have an urgent personal problem which needs immediate attention. But all you get is the infamous church answering machine. You hear this recording: “The Pastor is unavailable. He is busy working on next Sunday’s sermon. You can leave a message at the sound of the tone. . . . Beep!” You are insulted! How could the Pastor think that his preaching is more important than being there for you!

→ Continue reading Left Behind?

Bonus Features: Sermon Outline

​I dislike shopping for cars. I dislike the aggressive salesman whom I fear is going to get the best of me. From the minute I walk into the showroom, I feel like I am at war. The first thing a salesman wants from me is my name. He doesn’t want to know my name because he wants to be my friend but because he wants to make a sale. When he knows my name, he can control me in ways he could not do if I remained anonymous. That is his ultimate objective: to be in control in such a way that I think I am in control and getting a good deal when in fact he is control and getting a good deal. The only thing I can do to hold him off is not tell him my name.

→ Continue reading The Exorcist

Bonus Features: Sermon Outline, Audio Soundtrack

Or suppose we recorded an episode of “CSI” on our DVR. However, when it came time to watch it, we cheated. We watched the last five minutes first, and then went back and watched the entire episode from the beginning. In both cases, we would literally have changed the story. It would no longer be a “Who Dun It?” because now we would know from the beginning who was the murderer and how the story would end. You would experience the story in a new way. We would have a new story.

→ Continue reading The Last Chapter First

​Any teacher who is worth his salt knows that he just cannot speak in vague generalities and abstractions to his students. Regardless of how true his teaching might be, he must “PUT SOME FLESH ON IT.” I contend with this problem every time I teach, especially with youth. I must communicate the great doctrines of the Christian Faith, such grand and abstract ideas as sin, grace and salvation, in such way that they understand them. If they do not become flesh in concrete examples or ordinary life, I will lose them to the daydreams of boredom or the chaos of nervous energy.

→ Continue reading God in the Flesh