Spiritual Formation

I’m taking a course on Spiritual Formation, and reading some great books. One is called The Kingdom Life. It’s edited by Alan Andrews, but each chapter is written by a leader from a group called TACT (Theological And Cultural Thinkers). I want to pass on to you some great quotes from this book as I go through it. Check them out below… Continue reading “Spiritual Formation”

More great quotes from Fueling Freedom

“Affordable electricity has improved human welfare in the twentieth and twenty first centuries more than any other technology. Yet, as Matt Ridley reminds us, two billion people in the world have never seen an electric switch. Policies now asserted by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the U.S. government limit or prohibit financing for affordable fossil-fuel-fired electric generation in developing countries. This elite green perspective cruelly denies the world’s poorest families basic light, heat, and cooling, on which health and well-being depend. The greatest environmental killers in the world are cook stove smoke, contaminated water, and uncontrolled sewage. The elimination of indoor pollution, the provision of clean water, and the safe disposal of waste require treatment systems running on… electric power.” (223)

Global warming alarmists and politicized agencies tell us that the weather is becoming more extreme, as President Obama did in his 2013 State of the Union address: ‘Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods – all are now more frequent and more intense. We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe droughts in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science – and act before it’s too late.’ By repeating this nonsense, the president is contradicting the conclusions of the official climate science, which he insists we must accept. The IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report concludes that there is no meaningful evidence that hurricanes, tropical storms, drought, floods, or tornados are more extreme or frequent than in the past. Judith Curry, the former head of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech, likewise told Congress that ‘most types of weather extremes were worse in the 1930s and even in the 1950s than in the current climate, while the weather was overall more benign in the 1970s. This sense that extreme weather events are now more frequent and intense is symptomatic of ‘weather amnesia’ prior to 1970. Yet some developing countries are demanding ‘climate reparations’ and ‘climate justice’ from developed countries like the United States, to pay for the extreme weather damage they have incurred, allegedly from our country’s carbon dioxide emissions.” (224)

It Always Comes Just In Time

In the Spring of 1994, I was invited to teach at a Youth with a Mission discipleship school in a town called Tepic, in the state of Nayarit, Mexico. We were living by faith, so we never had an abundance of money, and when I teach in third-world countries, I usually do it without any expectation of pay. Sometimes they give me an offering, and sometimes they even pay all the expenses, but usually, that was not something I could count on. Instead, we had supporters in the US who believed in our ministry, and their monthly or one-time donations kept us afloat financially. Continue reading “It Always Comes Just In Time”

Real Significance

I’ve been privileged to do some exciting things in my life, some things that seemed really important or significant at the time. I was the senior speaker when I graduated from Bible College, and spoke to hundreds of students and highly educated faculty. That was a big deal to me. I’ve been on radio and television. I’ve preached the gospel to a jungle village where it had never been heard before. I’ve been before secular crowds as the only Christian minister. You get nervous or excited at such opportunities, and think you’re really doing something significant. Continue reading “Real Significance”

God will get you through!

This week for my studies at Regent, I had to meditate on Psalms 42 and 43. Did you know that the ancient Hebrew scribes usually combined these two into one? I’ve been reading the Bible for forty years, but I never knew that. ¡Cada día se aprende algo! (You learn something every day!) If you haven’t read them recently, check ‘em out again soon. These psalms provide some very great and practical lessons regarding how to respond to adversity and how to successfully get through times of adversity and trial.

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David and Jeremiah – What a Contrast!

I've been reading through the Bible every year since 1976. This year I made up my own schedule. Just a simple plan, nothing really well thought-out or directed toward any specific purpose. So I just "happened" to read the end of 1 Chronicles at the same time I was reading near the end of Jeremiah. Saw an interesting contrast by doing that, which I though worth mentioning. David and Jeremiah were both men of God. But how different their lives were because of the situations in which they found themselves! It's why I always say we need to read the whole Bible, not just our favorite parts. That's the only way to get a balanced view of things. 

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How John the Baptist’s Ministry relates to us

For one of my assignments at Regent, I was required to look closely at Mark 1:1-13. The last thing I was to do for my assignment was to write down anything I thought God had spoken to me through the passage. Well, I tend to be hesitant in saying God has spoken something to me! What I can say is, any time I ponder a section of His Word for a little while, I see things I hadn’t before. I glean knowledge of the Lord.

As I looked at the beginning of the Gospel and read about John the Baptist, who we know was the precursor or forerunner of Christ, I saw some principles regarding ministry in general that could apply to any of us. I thought I’d share them with any of you who might want to read this blog.

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“Idiotisado”

Years ago, a member of my former church told me how her husband, who’d been a pastor, was anointed and blessed as long as he was faithful to God. The Lord gave him revelation of the scriptures, and he had all sorts of understanding and wisdom. But then, he had an affair with another woman in his church. His ex-wife told me how, in a matter of just two weeks after falling into this sin, he became “idiotisado.”  This is a made-up Spanish word, but it means “idiotized.” He became foolish and darkened because he turned from God.

Continue reading ““Idiotisado””