Take a trip with me to Calcutta, India, in 1988.

Tucked away in an alley off a dingy street in that worn-out city is a very nondescript doorway. I was a bit uncertain that it was even the right place. But that humble doorway, through which I was warmly welcomed by the Missionaries of Charity, became an entrance for me into an understanding of worship that is branded deeply in my mind and heart.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly… (Col. 3:16)

Let’s talk about our relationship with the Bible, and particularly about knowing God better through “listening” to the Bible rather than just “reading” the Bible.

First, some basic facts about the Bible will help us get started…

The simple idea of this article is that without good teams, important endeavors go unaccomplished. Without good teams, there will be God-inspired missions that will “never get off the ground.”

The looming challenge is that the value our culture places on individualism puts us all at a disadvantage when it comes to team participation. For most of us to become effective team players, a deep-seated heart adjustment needs to take place where we switch off casual independence and switch on humble interdependence.

From Guest Contributor, David Cassidy (on Lent)

In his brilliant book Thank You for Being Late, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman notes the struggle we all have to keep up with the pace of change we are experiencing. The speed of our lives keeps accelerating in a never-ending battle to maintain awareness and efficiency while life continuously outpaces our ability to stay abreast of new information and changing demands. We’re tired. We’re even intimidated. We lose our bearings. We sense the need for a reset to regain the equilibrium essential to personal health and relational integrity. 

Walk down any busy sidewalk. Everybody looks fairly normal, right?

But, according to a recent Cigna study, every other person you see (58%) is experiencing significant loneliness. And for any that you see that are between 18 and 24 years old, it’s an astonishing 4 out of 5 (79%)!

You would think with all of our “connectedness” - email, cell phones, social media - we wouldn’t have a problem with loneliness. But we do.

Most churches offer sermons, but little conversation; truth, but minimal community. Sitting in our congregations and listening to sermons generally doesn’t scratch the loneliness itch. Smaller groups of 15 to 25 people help, but generally, if you were inwardly troubled with something personal, you likely wouldn’t disclose it even to that number.

Like new-born babes who quickly learn the voice of their parents, so are those who become God’s children - they learn the sound of his voice. To those with hearts committed to do his will, God will speak through Scripture, through the voice of those he sends, through nature itself, and by his Holy Spirit. What follows is not just the mental storing of facts about who God is and what his Word says, but a relationship with him of hearing and obeying. The goal is not just to know about God, but to know God. Disturbingly, to those who listen without doing, God promises deception. (see James 1:22)

I hope this doesn’t sound unpleasant, but I think it would do us all good to imagine our deaths.

Although death is an inevitability for everyone, there seems to be an aversion to peering into it, maybe like turning your eyes away from other unpleasant things. “I can’t look!”

Longings are deep-seated desires. Look carefully at your longings and you will see the road map for your future. Our lives move toward where our longings point… for better or worse.

Because of the powerful role that deep-seated desires have on how our lives unfold, tending those desires is a vital practice for those who would walk closely with God.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled (Matthew 5:6).

Hunger and thirst precede being filled.

As you read this article, would you candidly evaluate your own current experience with the Holy Spirit? Whether you’re a new Christian, an experienced Pentecostal or Charismatic, a mature Reformed believer, or maybe you’re not even sure what it means to be a Christian - would you prayerfully consider that there’s probably room for a more vital relationship with God’s Holy Spirit? I’m doing the same.

The oft-overlooked instruction in the Great Commission is that the followers of Christ are to be taught to obey, or to practice, all that Jesus commanded his disciples. If we truly believe in Jesus, habits of heart and action will follow. Belief that does not result in these practices is phantom faith. Learning to practice what Jesus taught is the essence of discipleship. Let’s talk about these practices…

…until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ… Ephesians 4:13

The starting point in learning how to pray is to make two key acknowledgments: 1) we don’t know how to pray, and 2) the Holy Spirit does.

That’s the essence of Paul’s instruction in Romans 8:26-27: “…we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us.” And, “…the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

This is something that Himmie and I are learning together. It’s a way of praying that is like conversation with another person.

After 400 years of silence, God’s opening New Testament message to a world very similar to our own was spoken through John the Baptist. It was an announcement of a new kingdom and a call to radical change, a call to repentance: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 3:2). Jesus’ core message was the same: ”... the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15). This is truly good news!

I’m writing this on Feb. 18, 2023, just days after reports of a spontaneous revival in Wilmore, KY began circulating. On February 8th, in the Wednesday morning chapel service at Asbury College in Wilmore, there was an emphasis on confession and repentance, and apparently God walked in. Since then, students have stayed for hours singing, praying, and worshiping, basking in an unusual sense of God’s nearness.

Can virtue become systemic? Can kindness or brotherly love, for instance, become the predominant characteristics of a community… of a city? Could the ways of God influence the rules that govern a state?

Of course, if…

Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-1956), The Gulag Archipelago

Would you do a little survey? Think of 25 Christian friends or acquaintances of yours. Now divide them into these three categories: True Members, Attenders, or Non-attenders.

Could we be in the final days of an era of church history and the beginning of a new era? Could it be that much of how we’ve done church is about to be shaken, and new ways of seeing the gospel advance are about to begin?

We are surrounded by a culture that is soaked in contention, accusation, and mistrust. We’re suspicious of our politicians, the media, business leaders, educational leaders, and even church leaders. Suspicion is the default.

In such a time, we must learn a different way. We must learn to recognize, prioritize and move among trust relationships.

ditty: a short, simple song

Guess what the most sung song in the world is… I bet you know it. It’s a little ditty by the name of Happy Birthday to You. According to the Guinness World Records in 1998, it was the most recognized song in the English language, followed by For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow. According to Wikipedia, it has been translated into at least 18 languages.