Last Sunday at CrossHope Chapel we spent a little more time on 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 and the subject of “the man of lawlessness” and who this man could be. I shared a thought I had, but I couldn’t recall if it was from the book of Daniel or a commentator, but the thought I shared was that there is a … Continue reading →
Continue reading →I am an advocate of doing church simply and a believer in the God ordained pastoral calling. However, I realize that there are voices in organic, simple, house church movements who reject the roles or at least the position of a “pastor” as belonging to institutional church. (I spoke to my concern of pastoral clergy criticism in my blog post “Critics of … Continue reading →
Several years ago I left traditional institutional denominational church pastoral ministry and received a lot of criticism from my colleagues on planting a house/organic church fellowship. Criticism from my fellow traditional ministers didn’t surprise me as much as the criticism I received from other organic church advocates, including random unexpected emails and even letters chastising me and trying to correct … Continue reading →
Somewhere along the line of my journey with CrossHope Chapel, it occurred to me that my calling in this mission was one of an “organic pastor” in philosophy, approach, and ministry. I want to give you a definition for the term “organic pastor” which is a term that I like to use when talking about those called of God to pastoral … Continue reading →
Yesterday, May 23, 2017 would have been my birth mother’s 79th birthday, had she not died in 1990. I was thinking earlier today that when I get to heaven I will have two mothers – the mother that adopted me and the mother that birthed me. Interestingly, the mom who raised me is named Irene and the mom who birthed me … Continue reading →
I have been out of the Seventh-day Adventist church almost as long as I was in the Seventh-day Adventist church. Since I have been among and ministering within non-Adventist churches, I have observed some things that I have always thought would be worth sharing with my Adventist friends. These are observations that I wish were shared with me when I … Continue reading →
I finally got my baby feet. What I mean is, I just received the card stock paper where the nurses at St. John’s Hospital in Fargo, North Dakota inked my feet, shortly after being born on October 1, 1962 and made an impression of my baby feet with ink. As I looked at the paper with the impression of my new … Continue reading →
I am an adoptee, and you can read my personal testimony to learn how that impacted my conversion and sustaining faith in Jesus Christ and His word. Here I wish to share 3 Scripture verses that I believe speak to the real significance of every individual who may be wrestling with their identity because of being an adopted child. Jeremiah … Continue reading →
Today at CrossHope Chapel we took a cross-reference jump from 2 Thessalonians 2:5 to 2 Timothy 3:1-5 and read this: “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, … Continue reading →
Here is a 15-point sequence of events as taught by the pre-tribulation rapture belief, sometimes called dispensationalism in eschatology… The Lord Jesus Himself descends from His Father’s House where He has been preparing a place for His bride, the church. John 14:1-3 • 1 Thessalonians 4:16 He will come to receive us to Himself. John 14:1-3 He will resurrect those who have … Continue reading →
As we get into 2 Thessalonians 2 in our teaching series at CrossHope Chapel, we’ll see that Paul is trying to explain to the believers there that they have not missed the rapture and they are not now in “the day of the Lord” (2 Thessalonians 2:2 ESV). These next weeks as we look at 2 Thessalonians 2 and 3 … Continue reading →
Continue reading →What should be our attitude toward the return of Jesus? Well here are five Bible verses and my thoughts about that… 1 Thessalonians 1:10 – We are to eagerly be waiting and looking for our Lord’s return. As a child I remember days of anticipation in our house as my mom and my siblings waited for my dad to arrive home … Continue reading →
This morning, as my Thursday custom is, I was studying for this Sunday’s teaching at CrossHope Chapel and sensed a need to share some thoughts on this verse: “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as … Continue reading →
As a newly saved 18 year old I distinctly remember having a disappointing conversation with a local church pastor who told me “Don’t worry about trying to read Bible prophecy, because you don’t need to know that.” That was sadly funny to me, as I stood there in that particular Charismatic church in Toledo, Ohio, because I later read from 1 … Continue reading →
In our study of John 20 on Sunday, I didn’t have all the answers to the questions being posed about verse 22-23 which says, “And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it … Continue reading →
In yesterday’s teaching we looked at the four requests of Jesus in His prayer as recorded in John 17. We saw that Jesus prayed that He would be glorified, that we would be kept from Satan, that we would be sanctified, and that we would be one. We had some distractions to contend with yesterday, so I want to back … Continue reading →
Last night at Midweek Fellowship we had a discussion about being confronted with the belief that if one has enough faith they can be healed. When I hear the phrase “enough faith” I cringe. It is a subtle error of presumption that disregards biblical truth, although an individual who may advocate it may be absolutely sincere. Faith is the “substance … Continue reading →
Yesterday, Sunday, October 2, 2016 we looked at John’s mention of seven specific ministries of the Holy Spirit throughout John 14 – 16 and I want to share that with you here… In Scripture, Jesus spoke most about the endowment of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the gift of God’s power for our lives. When we pray for … Continue reading →
This morning in our gathering at CrossHope Chapel, my wife made mention of a dream that I had recently where she woke me because I was repeating the name Jesus. She joked that she actually thought it was some kind of near-death experience, but the reason I was repeating the name Jesus was because I was confronted with a demon … Continue reading →
Last night at our Midweek Fellowship we were talking about the topic of joy, and afterwards I remembered two other important Bible verses that we could have looked at: • Nehemiah 8:10 – “for the joy of the Lord is your strength” • Proverbs 17:22 – “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” Also, here … Continue reading →
Don’t settle for for a mediocre prayer life. If you will commit to praying with the very promises of God in your prayers, you will experience a breakthrough that will move heaven to answer in a fulfilling way. Here is a three point guide for praying with God’s Bible promises, using the letters ABC… Ask – Begin by actually asking God for … Continue reading →
Last week at CrossHope Chapel we looked at John 4:1-45 and afterwards I found myself wishing I had invested more time on Jesus’ words “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” (John 4:23, ESV). I have been feeling that I may have given it too much of a simplistic spin when I tried to illustrate the issue … Continue reading →
The political issue of bathrooms and gender identity is far more than meets the eye. Individuals who are crying foul on laws that protect American citizens from predators and perverts seem to be advertising their absence of biblical morals, common sense, and is playing into the plans of Satan’s attack on God’s creation of distinction between male and female. Satan … Continue reading →
Yesterday at CrossHope Chapel we looked at John 2:13-25 “Jesus Cleanses the Temple” and we discussed God’s grace in the Passover, being angry without sinning (Ephesians 4:26) the Temple and it’s message of transference to Jesus Christ, those who want a “sign” rather than a scripture, the hard truth that every man has a heart intent on evil (Jeremiah 17:9), and … Continue reading →