To be happy? To be sad? To be tired? To be giving? To be expectant? To be regretful? To be receiving? To be fearful? To be anxious? To be generous? This season is a season that not just awakens many feelings and personal “drives,” but it magnifies them.

In our efforts to become more spiritually “mature” and become more like Jesus, we run the risk of retreating into our comfort zones rather than engaging the helpless people of this fallen world.

This approaching season may be a season of joy, to be sure, but for many it is often a season of sadness and depression. For some, this feels like war, and it is felt to be more “perpetual” than “seasonal.” For too many of us who call ourselves “Christ followers,” we “exist”rather than radiate “life…”

Do you ever feel like a hypocrite when singing the lyrics to some of the worship songs? Be honest with yourself, don’t you feel a little bit uneasy after the 4th refrain of “I Surrender All” knowing that your “All” still has some limitations attached to it?

To get the most from this article, you would benefit greatly by taking just a few minutes and read chapter 4 of John’s gospel before you continue. Here’s the deal: You read John 4 and I’ll keep my comments short, ok?

Do you believe it’s safe to walk through your Christian journey without being submitted to the word of God . . . . . and accountable to the family of God? If you said YES let me caution you that you are on slippery ground. If you said NO and yet have no network of accountability built into your life, you better watch your step too.

If the Bible is God’s voice, God’s message to you, what do you make of it? There are four words in the seventeenth chapter of John that we must consider. This whole chapter is a prayer by Jesus and certainly worth reading even before you continue here. It’s about you and me . . . . and Jesus.

Take a moment with me and slowly read through these names. What comes to mind first? Monica Lewinsky*; Lance Armstrong*; Chuck Colson*; Jimmy Swaggert*; Barry Bonds*; Richard Nixon*; King David*. Obviously your first response has been a lasting memory, a memory of something significant you recall about someone. Why the asterisks, you ask?

We live in a very critical society. People don’t automatically change from stripes to spots just because they are part of a church environment. To be sure and regrettably, we “church folk” can judge and criticize with the best of them. Let me hasten to say much of our “observations” and potential negativity doesn’t just stay between our ears. It finds its way over our lips and into the ears of others. This is a breeding ground…

I’ve learned a few things about “church” life, having been in leadership or closely connected to it for 35 years. It’s a people business, to be sure, and I’ve found that the joys and challenges present in a local church are pretty much the same no matter what the size. There are a few things that I want to say which may ruffle a few feathers or more hopefully stimulate a few hearts, but I would hope you will agree that even among…

Why do you believe in Jesus? Have you ever revisited what it was that drew you to say you are a “follower” of the One who claimed to be “one” with God? Was it something someone said? Was it something Jesus said or did? Was it something someone said about Jesus? Was it pressure or influence from peers or parents and “coming…

Is Christianity an “evolving” faith? Let me admit from the start that I am not fond of the term “progressive.” Not in politics and certainly not in religion. Does “progressive” mean the same to you as it means to me? I doubt it. I will say, also from the start, that hijacking that term for political and religious use was a…