Make Disciples—Intentionally

Arriving at church the morning the service time had changed, …

Thomas Troeger, a Presbyterian pastor and gifted preacher, tells a story of an experience he had once. He wrote:

"One day several years ago I was in a department store buying myself a new shirt when a complete stranger walked up to me and said, ‘You must be Henry Troeger's son.'

"I looked at this person and I said, ‘I don't believe I have ever seen you.'

"He said, ‘Oh, no, you have never met me at all, but a long time ago I worked with your father. I was a close colleague of his a…

The United States today is very similar to what 18th century England was like. Morals were all but gone on the part of the common man. The slave trade was at its height. A godless prison system entertained the people with public hangings. Gambling was a national obsession--one historian said that England was a vast casino. Drinking dominated the pastime of men and boys. False rumors were regularly used to manipulate the financial markets.

Also, the Anglican church was in decay. Zeal for Christ was considered professionally dangerous. 20% of the clergy had been r…

Unfortunately, most of us act like the out-of shape, overweight man who decided to take up tennis. He took lessons from a pro. He read several self-help books which advised him to "think positively" and "develop a winning attitude."

A friend asked him how his tennis was going. With a positive, winning attitude in his voice, the man rep…

Christopher Parkening is a concert guitarist. At age 30, he was at the top of his profession. His concert schedule booked years in advance. His CD's were best sellers. And then it all stopped. For three years he just disappeared. He stopped recording. He stopped performing. He said he was burned out. He did what all of us, I think, have been tempted to do from time to time in our life. He just chucked it all and went away. He had resources sufficient enough to buy a little ranch up in Montana, with a trout stream running through it. He was a champion fly fisherman. He sa…

Shortly after I had gone to my pastor and talked with him concerning this vague sense of calling to ministry that I was experiencing, he suggested that I preach while he was on vacation. By doing that, I could get some sense of what preaching was about and perha…

The first command Jesus gave his disciples was "Follow me!" The greatest commandment Jesu…

I find it strange that God has never deserted me. I don't understand that kind of grace frankly. I do not deserve his eternal presence, nor do you. Yet, God has forever identified with the human dilemma. There may not be a soul in the world who truly understands your feelings. God understands. All in your life may fall away. God will never fall away.

In Tom Brokaw's book The Greatest Generation, a story is told of Mary Wilson, presently of Dallas, Texas. You would never know by looking at this modest woman that she was the recipient of the Silver …

Max Lucado tells the story about the time he was sailing with his son and a church friend of the coast of Miami. They were having a leisurely cruise and the weather was perfect. But out of nowhere a storm appeared. The sky darkened, the rained started and the ocean became violent. Max was terrified and looked at his friend Milt for help.

Milt was deliberate and decisive. He told the men exactly where…

Have you ever been given orders for which you could get no reason? I suspect so. Everyone of us, at some time were told by Mom or Dad to DO something; we asked "Why?" and got the response, "Because I SAID so, that's why." We followed those orders because we had no choice in the matter - the one who gave them had the power to back them up. But we proba…

Harry Emerson Fosdick was pastor of Riverside Church in New York when their magnificent new building was built. But the last Sunday in their old building, before moving into the new one, he sai…

Our text concludes with the counsel, "When these things come to pass, stand up and lift up your heads, for your redemption is drawing near." That's been the experience of Christians for all these years. Whether they are in exodus, or in exile, we are not alone.

Our four year old grandson has provided me a wonderful illustration of this. His mother was going to go away for a couple of days. The night befor…

A young salesman was disappointed about losing a big sale, and as he talked with his sales manager he complained, "I guess it just proves you can …

Frederick Houk Borsch, since 1988, has been Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. I don't remember where I first read this quote on the Trinity, but my notes indicate that when he wrote it, he was a religion Professor of Religion at Princeton University and Dean of the Princeton University Chapel.

There are probably a number of people who imagine that the idea of the Trinity was thought up by ivory-tower theologians wh…

Most people expect every minister in the world to witness and do the "E" word thing. You're sort of like secret agents. Most folks don't expect you to talk about your faith or be involved in this whole Evangelism deal. But you know what, you are exactly who J…

In preparing for this book on evangelism and witness, I have talked to a lot of people, and the fear issue comes up again and again. What makes people hesitate to share their faith? Here are some of the fears that have been mentioned to me:

• I am afraid I might do more harm than good.
• I don't know what to say.
• I may not be able to give snappy answers to tricky questions.
• I …

Lieghton Ford, a friend of Billy Graham and an influential evanglist like Graham, tells the following story: I was speaking at an open-air crusade in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Billy Graham was to speak the next night and had arrived a day early. He came incognito and sat on the grass at the rear of the crowd. Because he was wearing a hat and dark glasses, no on…

The year was 1920. The scene was the examining board for selecting missionaries. Standing before the board was a young man named Oswald Smith. One dream dominated his heart. He wanted to be a missionary. Over and over again, he prayed, "Lord, I want to go as a missionary for you. Open a door of service for me." Now, at last, his …

In his book, Be an Extraordinary Person in an Ordinary World, Rev. Robert H. Schuller tells the story behind a seed he received one day from Ansley Mueller, a farmer in Pleasant Plains, Ohio. "For years," said Rev. Schuller, "I've been teaching the principle, 'Any fool can count the seeds in an apple. Only God can count the apples in one seed.'" Well, Ansley Mueller had been listening to this principle, and he sent this letter with a soybean seed:

"It was 1977, Dr. Schuller, and I lost half my crop. It was a bad, bad year. It was so wet I couldn't get half of it harvested and it didn't develop. So, at the end of the year, in October, I would walk through the fields and try to pick up a bushel here …

A good many years ago now, a brilliant theologian by the name of Reinhold Niebuhr noticed and wrote about an interesting thing that happens in groups and organizations. Put any group of people together, Niebuhr said, no matter how high and noble their initial purpose may be, and it doesn't take too long before two things begin to happen: they start becoming self-serving and self-protective. And when that happens, their own self-preservation becomes more important to them than their mission or their reason for existence. Pretty amazing,…

Someone was talking to a great scholar about a younger man. He said, "I am told that he was one of your students." The teacher ans…

As I see it, the Christian life must comprise three concentric circles, each of which must be kept in its proper place. In the outer circle must be the correct theological position, true biblical orthodoxy and the purity of the visible church. This is first, but…

In David Dunn's book entitled "Giving Yourself Away," he tells of a lesson he learned from a bus driver whom he once had met.

Riding the bus this day, Dunn noticed a driver who was exceptionally cheerful in every imaginable circumstance. There was a kind and happy word from him for everyone who stepped on the bus, and again for everyone who left.

As he was about to get off, Dunn told the driver he was the happiest bus driver he had ever seen and wondered what the reason was. "Well," the driver said, "to be honest, I read in the paper a few months ago about a man who died and lef…

Dr. Mark Jacobson, as I recall, was valedictorian of his class at Harvard, and then he went to the University of Minnesota Medical School where again he was the top student in his class.  Again, he was the valedictorian and gave the valedictorian address. He is an incredibly brilliant man. Then he went to Arusha, Tanzania, there with immense suffering.  He used his brains a…

A story was told about a church in Atlanta. A man noticed in the Yellow Pages, in the listing of restaurants, an entry for a place called Church of God Grill. The peculiar name aroused his curiosity and he dialed the number. A man answered with a cheery, "Hello! Church of God Grill!" He asked how the restaurant had been given such an unusual name, and the man at …

The Swiss missionary-theologian, Emil Brunner, likened the church's involvement in missions to the relationship that exist between fire and burning: "The church exists by mission as fire exists by burning." In other …

I was probably about twelve when I was in my church confirmation class, and I remember asking my pastor about the Trinity. I couldn't get how one and one and one, can be One, and not three, and I definitely couldn't get why it was important to say that God is three and God is One, if it was something that by definition was a mystery, something we can't understand.

The answer I remember well. I was told that the Trinity is like H20 – it can be ice or water or steam, but it's all water. Well, that makes …

C. T. Studd inherited a fortune from his father, one of the wealthiest Englishmen of the latter 19th century, but Studd gave it all up to become a missionary to China, India and Africa. Why? Here he is in his own words: "Christ's call is to feed the hungry, not the full; to save the lost, not the stiff-necked; not to call the scoffers, but sinners to repentance; not to build and furnish comfortable chape…

There's a story about an inquisitive 3 year old who was trying to get to the bottom of the mysteries of life.

"Mom" he would ask, "who made the stove?"

His mom, would respond back, "People made the stove."

Not be outsmarted, he would ask, "Well who made the people?"

"God made the people" she would reply.

This would go on with just about everything.

"Daddy who made the TV?"…

In his book The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel tells of 30-year-old preacher getting ready for what would be a major crusade. But despite his calling, the preacher was wrestling with doubts. He doubted whether or not he could trust what he read in the Scriptures. He was struggling with the philosophical and psychological questions people were raising about the Bible. For weeks he searched for answers, praying and pondering. Then one evening, in 1949, that preacher was walking in the San Bernardi…

An international gathering of youth met for a full week to discuss how better to promulgate Christ's message to the world. Those assembled for the conference read many informative essays, heard many fine speakers, watched a few videos, and had ample time to discuss with each other. At the end and probably because of a little frustration with the proceedings a young woman from East Africa arose and …

Tertullian, one of the theologians of the early church, explained the Trinity in a m…

The Fathers of the Church used examples to explain the Trinity. They said: Look at a tree if you want to try to understand God. There is the root, the trunk and the fruit. The root is like God the Father, invisible but you know it's there, the trunk is like God the son, sent forth by the Father, visible and tangible, the branches and fruit is like the Holy Spirit. We are connected to Christ through the Spirit dwelling in us and by the power of the Spirit we bear fruit in the world.

Or lo…

There are two ways of handling pressure. One is illustrated by a bathysphere, the miniature submarine used to explore the ocean in places so deep that the water pressure would crush a conventional submarine like an aluminum can. Bathyspheres compensate with plate steel several inches thick, which keeps the water out but also makes them heavy and hard to maneuver. Inside they'…

This is Trinity Sunday. God in three persons--Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Do we fully understand this wonderful doctrine? No, but some of us will fight for it.

You may remember that ancient story about St. Augustine. One day he took a break from writing about the Trinity to take a walk along the seashore. There he came across a child with a little pail, intently scooping up a pail full of water out…

The earliest known mention of the expression "Apostles' Creed" occurs in a letter of AD 390 from a synod in Milan. The most traditional version of the creed is as follows:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
      creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
      who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
      and born of the virgin Mary.
      He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
      was crucified, died, and was buried;
      he descended to hell.
      The third day he rose again from the dead.
      He ascended to heaven
      and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
      From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
      the holy catholic* church,
      the communion of saints,
      the …

Water has been in the news a lot recently, at least in the forms of snow and ice.  Winter storms and snow literally stopped traffic in many parts of the country.  And as much as we try to forge through to get to work or school, sometimes we have to stop and respect what the water around us is doing.  Water is part of the drama of our life. It brings life, but not enough or too much can bring destruction. Let us focus on the life giving power of clean, fresh water.

There are two very different ways to think about baptism. The first approach recognizes the time of baptism as a saving moment in which the person being baptized accepts the love and forgiveness of God. The person then considers herself "saved." She may grow in the faith through the years, but nothing which she will experience a…

The story is told of a rather self-important man who made it his mission to visit the Sunday school classes in his church each week. Often teachers were a little intimidated by him sitting there in silent judgment. One young woman nervously asked him if he would like to speak a few words to the class. …

It is common practice to accuse the church of selling out of not remaining true to its mission and message.

Colonel Sanders went to Rome one time. He decided while there to seek an audience with the Pope. Always the businessman, Sanders said to the Pope, "I'd be willing to make a donation of one million dollars to the Vatican if you would change that line …