Jesus is risen indeed, but what do we do now? We are Easter people. We are called to push down fear and love our neighbors. A Christ follower overcomes the divide, crawls out from behind the bunker and welcomes the lost, afraid, and hopeless. We are transformed by hope.

Worship is our response to God’s love. You can’t fake it — you have to feel it.

Have you ever noticed how many churches expect NO displays of joy in worship? I’m not talking about fake “hallelujahs” or empty “praise Gods.” I mean real JOY.

Who knows when it started, or when it became such an epidemic, but too many people have been shamed into church as an obligation. It is not a ‘have to’ it is a ‘get to’. Let’s celebrate!

I once thought exactly like a lot of people do. I thought church was boring, I thought the
Bible was dull, and I thought being a Christian was ho-hum. But then I discovered scholars who made sense of these things.

I discovered people with deep wisdom. I discovered how spectacular the Bible really is,
and how absolutely amazing the story of the church really is. And I began to see the fun behind
all that God is doing. And I was hooked.

Reflection helps us understand why things matter and how they relate to us. Simply
accumulating information does not always equal knowledge.

Who guides you through life? It’s not that God is too busy. Maybe we just don’t listen unless the decision feels too tough to make alone. If we are rationalizing our behaviors that are clearly contrary to God then we are NOT hearing the Holy Spirit guiding us.

Selfishness is the soul-killer today. Does pride keep you from seeing the hurt and need all around you?

The obsession to demand that things go the way we want them to go is one of the greatest bondages in human society. People need a place where they matter. Where everyone knows their name. Where they are loved. Where they know people care.

We race and scramble to keep up with the pace of our world, to keep up with the trends, to keep up with the latest gadgets so we will not stand out. We do not like being different because we fear being alone. Fear drives us to the noise and the crowds. But if we want to grow in our spiritual lives, we have to find a way to make room for distance from the noise.

When I started my life as a God-follower, I had no idea what it meant to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. I wanted instant success.  I wanted someone to sprinkle magic Christian pixie dust on me and let me get started.  Maybe you did, too.  But it does not work that way.  

Wilt Chamberlain was a brilliant basketball player, but terrible at shooting free throws from the foul line. Why? He was just too strong.

We can’t seem to like people who don’t look, think, act, and speak like we do. What if you changed yourself instead of trying to change others? Maybe together you could move closer to God.

What’s in a name? “Michael” has a value of 101. So do: Garcia, at and Asia. But the emperor Nero’s name had a numerical value of 666. Was he the beast in the book of Revelation?

What’s in a vaccine? Life-giving protection from disease or the dreaded mark of the beast? A little history of the book of Revelation will help sort out its true meaning.