This year we find ourselves in a sea of uncertainty as we approach Easter. We find ourselves separated and isolated from friends and family. Many have lost their jobs and are struggling to see how they will financially make it through these times. Some of our ... Read More »

Each time a preacher steps behind the pulpit, a myriad of thoughts can flood his mind. Spurgeon wrote concerning the multitude of thoughts that can invade the mind of the preacher. “We cannot tell how many thoughts can traverse the mind at once. I ... Read More »

I will forever be indebted to Rick Ferguson, my predecessor at Riverside Church in Denver, Colorado, for paving the way for me to have one of the most fulfilling pulpit ministries I ever experienced as a pastor. Rick’s tenure at Riverside came to an abru... Read More »

1. Don’t neglect your daily devotional time with the Lord. The preaching ministry is the easiest place in the world to grow cold spiritually! The reason is that we are always studying to see what God says to someone else! We must be in a vital and growing wi... Read More »

1. Understand your call. God does not call you to a certain task, but he calls you to Himself. It is out of your relationship to Him that He assigns you specific tasks. This underscores the importance of your daily time with the Lord. You have been filled with... Read More »

The text-driven preaching movement occurring among Southern Baptist churches emphasizes the necessity for preachers to speak the Word of God. This is done by first representing not only the biblical text but also the genre and spirit of the text. However, a pr... Read More »

Ephesians is a wonderful letter of slight paradoxes. It is a letter, but it reads more like a sermon (such as: long sentences). Paul wrote it to a church—but not exclusively (see below). It is a unique letter—but it has a slight twin (Colossians). Paul... Read More »

Warren Spahn was a Major League baseball pitcher known for his craftsmanship on the pitching mound. In a 21 year career that concluded in 1964, the left-hander won 363 games and won at least 20 games a season 13 times. His pitching coach in Milwaukee, Whitlow ... Read More »

My father-in-law loves to watch Gold Rush, the reality series that documents the gold mining efforts of various family-run mining companies. Although I am not a big fan, I have found myself perched on my in-laws’ couch watching people use modern equipment an... Read More »

Addressing the topic of important words in Ephesians begs the prior question of what constitutes an important word. By what measure or standard does one decide that a word or phrase is significant and deserves further study? Theologically loaded words such as ... Read More »

Ephesians seems to be written as a “circular letter” to the churches in the city of Ephesus.[1]Clinton E. Arnold, Ephesians,  ZECNT (Zondervan, 2010), 25–28; Peter Thomas O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians. PNTC (Eerdmans, 1999), 83. A... Read More »

The tallest mountain in the United States is Denali (formerly Mt. McKinley), located in Alaska. When the most impressive peak is in plain sight, it may be easy to overlook the fact that the second through sixth tallest mountains in the country are in Alaska to... Read More »