40 Days and 18 Ways

Tomorrow our church, First family Church, begins our 40 Days of Prayer and Fasting emphasis. I’m looking forward to seeing God work deeply within the lives of his flock here as every day we are all praying, and everyday at least one person is fasting. … Read More

It’s STATurday: Church Numbers

Curious about what are the most common prayers? Or how equipped church members think they are to deal with immigration? Or what denomination provides more chaplains for the military? The October edition of [On Mission] magazine reveals some facts and figures related to each of … Read More

Now What? Living in Light of 11 (Acts 11, that is)

Before itemizing a few action points from Acts 11, here are a few of the nut graphs from the message — the most essential statements and paragraphs that summarize this rich text. [You can listen to the entire message here.] “What God was doing in … Read More

A Puritan Prayer

One of the things I’ve been doing lately is reading through the prayers and meditations of the Puritans from the book “The Valley of Vision.” In fact, Julie and I utilize them many nights as exactly that—prayers that we pray aloud. We also enjoy the … Read More

Does God Hear the Prayers of Unbelievers? (1)

When John, in his first letter, reveals explicitly that one of the privileges of belonging to God is shameless and confident access to him in prayer (5:14-15), it is implicit that those who don’t belong to God don’t have such benefits. Which begs this question: … Read More

My Kind of Prayer

Though I like the way Jonah prayed in Jonah 2:1 (“prayed”), I love the way he prayed in 2:2 (“called”). Let me explain. The Hebrew word “pray” in 2:1 has more of an official sense to it. Nothing wrong with this kind of praying (like … Read More