Apprentice 2 Jesus

Discipleship/Spiritual Formation

  • The Promise of the Spirit

    This weekend I am beginning a short series on the Holy Spirit. As Pentecostals, we are sometimes better demonstrating than teaching on this subject. It needs to be both. There is more that is stirring. What the Spirit is stirring will need to be spoken more “in house” (meaning more TO the Body of Christ)… Read more

  • How to Be Holy in Ten Easy Steps

    The text I will preaching this Sunday (and yes, it is without regard to the Hallmark Holiday and I apologize) is 1 Peter 1:13-25. Staring us in the face is that horrific verse: “BE HOLY FOR GOD IS HOLY.” Holiness in my life growing up was all about how we dressed. Quite honestly, I would… Read more

  • The Weariness and the Whining

    Numbers 11 The parallels to our own attitudes is astounding. We just can’t be happy. Israel was being delivered from Egypt and were standing at the edge of the Promised Land. So, they go to complaining. They can’t take the hardship anymore. They dream of the great food back in Egypt! (Culture shock has set… Read more

  • The Elder Brother

    We are going through Tim Keller’s excellent book The Prodigal God in our Wednesday night adult group at church. Keller is incredibly challenging. I love his style. Our views on the parable of the prodigal tend to focus on the younger son. Who can’t get into that? We write songs about it. (“When God Ran.”… Read more

  • Book Review — The Next Christians

    There is more old “new” news. It seems that we have reached the end of Christian America. It’s “new” because it is still selling books. It’s “old” because I remember this being said by Chuck Colson over 20 years ago. I’m sure it was stated before that as well. Here’s the thing: they are ALL… Read more

  • common prayer

    In my journey I have NOT drifted from being one thing to being another spiritually. There might be some who claim they went from being Pentecostal to liturgical. (Like they gave up being Pentecostal.) That is not my story. I am still Pentecostal. I still believe in the life of the Spirit. I still believe… Read more

  • Mediocre is my motto

    Two interesting articles in The Atlantic Monthly. One was a column by James Parker on late night shows. This column explained clearly why I don’t particularly like late night shows. They don’t mean anything. This quote was very clarifying for me: “Like Seinfeld, The Larry Sanders Show was deeply committed to superficiality, honoring the intuition… Read more

  • Daring to Hope: Where Would You Give?

    I am working through the passage in Isa. 2:1-5 for Sunday. I don’t expect much in the way of response on Thanksgiving weekend, but I have this thought: If we would dare, as believers, to really step up and HOPE, how would we do it? For instance, in keeping with the Christmas season, could we… Read more

  • What is “Fruit”?

    I have some luxury of time in preparing for my next message, so I am meditating on John 15. The question for me is this: “What is fruit?” In our pragmatic evangelical world, it often means “souls.” Numbers. But, honestly… what is the FRUIT Jesus refers to here? I would love your thoughts. Read more

  • Restful Warfare

    One of the keys of silence is rest. There is such a need to unplug and let the quiet envelope us once again. But in that rest comes war. The silence, if we allow it to take effect, will actually us to hear the voice of God more clearly. There is an enemy with a… Read more